SDI at COP30: Community-Led Data as a Tool for Power Redistribution

True climate resilience requires a radical redistribution of power, not just participation.

This was strongly emphasised at the Community-Led Data as a Tool for Power Redistribution event, hosted by SDI in partnership with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOT), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Enda Energy at the Peru Resilience Hub during COP30 in Belém in November.

Speakers stressed that data collection is not merely a technical exercise. The focus must be on “actionable insights” rather than collecting data for its own sake. “Data collection is a process. It is a process that starts with community action… It is also a catalyst for engagement with the city and national authorities,” remarked SDI Network President, Joe Muturi.

Data collection drives community action, can shape local development agendas and provides actionable insights for planning and policy formation to better influence national legislation and municipal planning globally.

Community-led data provides the credibility and evidence needed to make communities visible and amplify their local adaptation and resilience strategies. The Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation in Freetown, Sierra Leone, successfully influenced a national policy, the Land and Country Planning Act, which recognises informality and mandates municipal councils to provide essential services to these communities.

“Our approach goes beyond traditional data collection. We focus on collecting accurate data, generating actionable insights and influencing policy formulation,” shared Richard Bockarie, Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation.

While SDI’s Know Your City approach, launched in 2012, is recognised as the gold standard for community-generated data, there is an urgent need for donors to get behind this work. The vision must be an integrated, community-led plan that all donors and different spheres of government can support, to move beyond project-by-project funding.

Watch the full video for more. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGkHpJELmYk

SDI Media Statement, 12 November 2025

SDI Media Statement

12 NOVEMBER 2025

For Immediate Release

Grassroots leaders and experts among the more than 1 billion people living in favelas and slums worldwide have demanded to be taken seriously by leaders at COP30.

The summit’s Brazilian hosts recognize that “cities are shaping the future of global climate action” while continuing the self-defeating trend of downplaying and excluding residents of vulnerable low-income and informal settlements, often referred to as slums.

In an open letter to the COP30 Presidency, the Climate Champions Group of Slum Dwellers International (SDI) says its members are tired of being “asked to provide testimony of the real-life consequences of climate breakdown” even as they are persecuted and their homes dismissed as “illegal” by authorities at home.

With evidence showing that upgrading informal settlements can provide a GDP boost for entire societies, SDI argues leaders are missing a trick by failing to adapt cities to the effects of climate change, and by failing to take advantage of the wealth of data and insights its network can provide.

Joseph Muturi, President of the Global SDI Network, said: “Informal settlements have been treated as problems to be solved by governments for decades. Our contributions are key to building and running the cities of today and of tomorrow.”

“We are arriving at COP30 demanding to be recognized as key stakeholders that hold solutions to climate change problems.” Joe Muturi serves as co-chair of the Marrakech Partnership Nexus Area Working Group on Empowering People Living and Working in Informality, together with Asma Jhina of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy.

Tucker Landesman, who supports the SDI Climate Champions Group as a Senior Researcher on Urban Climate Action at the International Institute for Environment and Development, said: “We have strong research demonstrating that people living in informal settlements are disproportionately more vulnerable than most to the effects of climate change like extreme heat, floods, and storms”

“Evidence is emerging across the global South that upgrading informal settlements is one of the most effective climate adaptation strategies we have. It reduces risk, improves health, and strengthens local economies.”

Nicera Wanjiru, a leader from the Kenyan national federation, Muungano wa Wanavijiji​​ reiterated that “slum upgrading is climate action.” “We are working to save our homes and livelihoods from flooding and storms, sea level rise, and extreme heat. We could do so much more if the experts sitting in government and big development organizations worked with us in real partnership.”

Slum Dwellers International (SDI) is a global network of community-based organisations of the urban poor in more than 20 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Its federations organise savings groups, collect data, and negotiate with governments to secure land, housing, and basic services, advancing inclusive urban development and locally led climate action.

[Ends]

For more information or to request an interview, contact:

Esley Philander: +27 61 643 4249, esley@sdinet.org

Mikkel Harder: mikkel@sdinet.org

Click here to download the statement as a pdf

CBA 19: Tenure security is vital for climate adaptation

SDI’s message at the Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA19) was clear, Slum Upgrading is Climate Action! Held from 12–16 May 2025 in Recife, Brazil, CBA19 marked the first time the conference took place in Latin America.

The event brought together community practitioners from around the world to advance community-driven climate action. The SDI delegation included representatives from Brazil, Kenya, the SDI Secretariat, Tanzania, the Philippines, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

It is more than just about four walls

Housing is the first line of defence against climate change, but it is about more than just about four walls. Housing inequalities and injustices drive climate vulnerability. Secure land tenure is essential for sustainable climate adaptation and long-term impact. Forced evictions, fuelled by the commodification of land, is the unjust reality for countless low-income households.

Organised communities have the collective power to negotiate land rights and lead incremental, community-driven slum upgrading efforts.

Forced Evictions: A threat to Climate Adaptation

During the session Living the LLA Principles – Women and Traditional Communities Leading Action from the Global South, Theresa Carampatana from the Homeless People’s Federation of the Philippines shared how the women-led federation secured land ownership for nearly 3,000 informal settlement residents who were threatened with evictions. Once land tenure was secured, the federation facilitated efforts to mitigate flood and fire risks through incremental upgrading of homes and the settlement.

Youth as Agents of Change

In a dialogue on coalitions for inclusive climate action, urban labs and youth-led climate planning, Lizian Onyango from SDI Kenya asked those in attendance: “We often frame urban youth as a marginalised group vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. But what if this narrative is holding us back? What if, instead of being seen solely as recipients of support, urban youth were recognised as active agents in shaping climate adaptation?”

Lizian shared how SDI Kenya has engaged youth as co-researchers. Using GIS mapping, they identified key infrastructure, assessed risks, and visualised social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities. This combination of technology and local knowledge shows how youth can drive practical, community-led adaptation.

Locally-led adaptation begins with shifting power!

Milka Kori, also from SDI Kenya, took part in a dialogue on building stronger global partnerships to support local action. Participants explored how civil society organisations can connect grassroots groups with national and international efforts.

Communities must lead and set their own priorities to design solutions that work for them. While intermediaries like NGOs can provide support, they must ensure communities remain in control.

Financing Adaptation from the Ground Up

The SDI Secretariat, together with the Centre for Community Initiatives in Tanzania, co-hosted a session showcasing SDI’s Urban Poor Funds (UPFs), savings groups, and community-led data collection (profiling and enumeration) as successful examples of grassroots-led climate finance mechanisms.

This interactive session demonstrated how pooling funds as an organised collective, combined with community-led data collection, helps address the most urgent climate risks through incremental upgrading in slum communities. It also highlighted the vital role of community-driven governance in ensuring financial management is transparent, accountable, and impactful.

LLA Supports Food Sovereignty and Livelihoods

Ian Matimba, representing the People’s Process on Housing and Poverty in Zambia (PPHPZ), was recognised at CBA19 for presenting the most inclusive solution during the “Shark Tank” – a platform where participants pitch locally-led climate adaptation ideas to a panel of experts with investment experience.

The winning initiative, Sustainable Enterprises for Urban Resilience in Zambia, focuses on scaling up hydroponics and black soldier fly farming. This innovative approach conserves water, improves soil quality, enhances access to nutritious food, supports better waste management and creates new income opportunities for local communities.

Watch →

Judges commended the PPHPZ team for a well-rounded project that applies circular economy principles to improve food production and soil health in marginalised areas, using waste as a resource. They also highlighted the hydroponic system’s efficiency and its potential to be replicated in diverse contexts. The project’s contributions to water and soil conservation, food security, local livelihoods and the team’s commitment to reinvesting profits for continued growth and sustainability were welcomed.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-FYqqfjlXnc

SDI at CBA19 – Slum Upgrading is Climate Action!

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For more information, please email joseph@sdinet.org

Jump to schedule

A Call to Urgent Action

Over one billion people live on the frontlines of climate change in informal settlements. This number is projected to double by 2050.

The urban poor are forced to live in climate-vulnerable settlements, using inadequate building materials and construction methods highly susceptible to climate shocks.

We are not statistics. We are people. We are a movement.
We are resilience in action.

For over 30 years, Slum Dwellers International (SDI) has practised locally-led climate adaptation in informal settlements in over 22 countries. Despite limited institutionalisation or policy support, urban poor communities are imagining their own futures through precedent setting pilots. We upgrade our communities because we cannot afford
to wait.

Cover photograph courtesy of Know Your City Zambia

Slum Upgrading is Climate Action

Despite the growing crisis, world leaders and global institutions are not treating climate action—let alone climate justice—with the urgency it demands. SDG 11, which aims for inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities, remains far from reality for our communities.

From Promises to Working Partnerships

Governments and all stakeholders must urgently honour and fast-track the implementation of the Global Action Plan (GAP) for transforming informal settlements and slums by 2030, using more appropriate and inclusive approaches.

Now is the time to turn promises into partnerships and jointly
design a #DignifiedUrbanLife that leaves no one behind.

Slum Upgrading is Climate Adaptation — from the Ground Up

We live with the problems. We must lead the solutions.

Housing is our first line of defense against climate change, but it’s more than just about four walls. Housing inequalities and injustices are driving climate vulnerability.

Basic rights, such as land tenure security, have not been widely secured. Forced evictions, driven by the commodification of land, are accelerating under climate pressure, further limiting adaptive capacity. Being organised increases our bargaining power to secure tenure and drive incremental, community-led slum upgrading. Organised communities are advocating for secure tenure to unlock resilience capacity.

We don’t wait. We act.
We feel climate risks first.
We adapt to climate changes.
We are the first to respond to climate shocks.

Equitable Financing

We invest in our own adaptation and upgrading.

Over the past 20 years, only 3.5% of global climate finance was allocated to the urban poor. This gap is likely to widen. While informal settlements lack essential infrastructure and basic services, households are forced to spend a significant portion of their already limited income on climate adaptation.

Women-led savings groups are the building blocks of our movement. Members’ savings are pooled and networked into Urban Poor Funds (UPFs), which support housing upgrades, climate adaptation, disaster response, and essential services. Urban Poor Funds (UPFs) are a community-led financing model grounded in solidarity, with a strong track record of direct accountability to their members for every cent spent, despite receiving limited support from international funders.

Community action alone isn’t enough — scaling impact requires sustained investment, institutionalisation and critical infrastructure.

Governments, donors, climate finance agencies, and all stakeholders must move beyond top-down funding mechanisms and support climate action aligned with the principles of Locally Led Adaptation (LLA). Direct investment in community-led adaptation is a high-impact, cost-effective strategy that delivers better value for money in building resilient and inclusive cities.

Know Your City

Community-led Data Collection for Slum Upgrading

Community participation in urban planning must be inclusive to be effective. SDI Federations leverage community-collected data for evidence-based advocacy, making the invisible visible, engaging governments to promote inclusive urban development and policy. This approach helps fill gaps in official data and ensures that local knowledge informs decision-making.

We map our communities. We count our homes.
We document our needs
We collect our own data, we take control of our future.

Information is our Power.
Halala SDI, halala!

SDI at CBA19

SDI is represented at CBA19 by the SDI Secretariat and the following Affiliates:

Kenya: Muungano wa Wanavijiji & SDI Kenya

Philippines: Homeless Peoples’ Federation Philippines & Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives

Senegal: Fédération Sénégalaise des Habitants & UrbaSEN

Tanzania: Tanzania Urban Poor Federation & Centre for Community Initiatives

Uganda: National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda & ACTogether Uganda

Zambia: Zambian Homeless & Poor People’s Federation & People’s Process on Housing and Poverty in Zambia

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation & Dialogue on Shelter

Visit SDI at the CBA19 Marketplace Stall #14 on Floor 2 and join us at the following sessions:

MONDAY 12th May 2025

Equitable finance mechanisms by the urban poor

Hosts: Center for Community Initiatives & SDI

Time: 15h30 to 17h00

Location: Sala Moxoto (Floor 3)

Living the LLA principles – women and traditional
communities leading action from the global South

Hosts: Avina Foundation; Tropenbos International; Huairou Commission & SDI

Time: 13h30 to 15h00

Location: Sala Sao Francisco (Floor 2)

THURSDAY, 15 May 2025

Coalitions for inclusive climate action – urban labs and youth-led climate planning

Hosts: IIED; SDI Kenya; World Resources Institute & United Nations University

Time: 13h30 to 15h00

Location: Sala Moxoto (Floor 3)

SDI’s participation at CBA19 forms part of the Generating Ambition for Locally Led Adaptation (GA-LLA) programme, a collaborative initiative led by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and generously supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in the Netherlands.

SDI at COP27: Amplifying Voices of the Urban Poor for Transformative Change

By Ariana Karamallis, Programme Coordinator for Advocacy and Resilience at the SDI Secretariat

From 6 – 18 November, SDI delegates from Kenya, India, the Philippines, Malawi, Zambia, and the SDI Secretariat attended the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. 

Over the past few years, SDI has been steadily building a strong presence in the climate adaptation and justice space – firmly rooted in community-driven climate adaptation and advocacy work carried out by our affiliates on the ground. SDI at COP27 and our participation at the event marked a milestone in our climate work, establishing SDI at COP27 as a key player in the climate space – particularly as it relates to the experiences and needs of and solutions required to address and reduce the impacts of the climate crisis in urban poor communities. COP27 served as an important platform to raise the voices of the urban poor around climate change –- particularly women and youth – showcase their work, action and achievements, and amplify the needs, priorities, and key messages emerging on the ground.

SDI served as a managing partner of this year’s COP27 Resilience Hub, co-hosting an event with GAYO titled “Amplifying Voice from Urban Informal Settlements,” (watch the video of the full session here) and moderating and providing inputs at the closing session, which featured reflections from the director of ICCCAD and Loss and Damage specialist Saleemul Huq, UN High-Level Champions Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Muñoz, and SDI’s former chair, Sheela Patel. The SDI and GAYO session provided space for rich discussions between on-the-ground practitioners and strategic global partners, including inputs from Zilire Luka, director of CCODE Malawi, and Theresa Carampatana, member of the SDI Board and President of the Homeless People’s Federation of the Philippines, Arne Janssen of Cities Alliance, Hellen Wanjohi of WRI Africa, and Christie Kieth of GAIA. 

“Resilience is intimately connected to land ownership. You cannot make a settlement resilient if you don’t have a right to work on the land. This work takes time and investment — for the leaders and community and investment in them as leaders! Money isn’t enough. The community and government have to be empowered to support the issue.” – Theresa Carampatana, member of the SDI Board

“We need to acknowledge that everyone works at different scales and all of that work matters. But to build genuine partnerships between these entities is a painstaking process. Building trust isn’t easy! But it builds ownership and capacity. We have to value this.” – Hellen Wanjohi, WRI Africa

In addition to the above, SDI delegates spoke at over 25 events over the course of the two-week period, sharing experiences and reflections on topics ranging from locally-led adaptation to loss and damage to affordable resilient housing and the development of resilience indicators. No matter where SDI delegates spoke, they always brought with them the unique experience of urban poverty, giving voice to vastly underrepresented issues in climate spaces – that the consequences of the climate crisis have uniquely devastating impacts on urban poor communities, that governments and the international development community must recognise the unique role of cities in addressing the climate crisis, and that the increasing majority of urban residents are and will continue to be informal. 

The good news is that when urban poor communities organise and mobilise, their capacity to catalyse transformative change is immense. But this needs to be supported, replicated and scaled by those in power in order for it to become a reality. And while it is yet to be seen whether those in power are willing to take necessary action, the scales seem to be tipping ever so slightly in favour of justice. Indeed, the agreement by member states to create a fund for loss and damage points towards the power of civil society – who have been pushing to get loss and damage on the climate agenda for decades – to effect change in these spaces, and the degree to which it is increasingly impossible to ignore either the interconnectedness of the climate crisis or the need for solutions that are not only global in nature but address the fundamental inequities of our world. 

While SDI is hopeful about these developments, as well as the increasing support for and commitments to locally-led adaptation, we continue to focus our efforts on demonstrating that urban poor communities across the Global South are already implementing locally-led adaptation work, are capable of managing climate finance, and have many of the solutions required to advance climate justice in our cities. The real work of urban (and global) decision-makers now is to recognise the reality of our rapidly urbanising world and the capacity of its urban poor to effect the change required to achieve the climate-just future we need. We hope that by COP28 we see an increase in commitments from global decision-makers as well as local and national governments to support the work of local communities through increased and institutionalised participation of urban poor communities in climate adaptation planning in cities and increased finance to support locally-led climate adaptation work.

“We need governments and global partners to effectively partner with us – slum dwellers, grassroots communities, urban poor people –  to finance, replicate and scale up the work we have been doing in our communities for decades. We have no choice but to adapt. We are always experiencing loss and damage. These things are our daily reality. Come to us for the answers – we want to help – our lives depend on it.” – Joseph Muturi, chair of the SDI Board

SDI at the COP27 African Regional Resilience Hub

For general Africa Resilience Hub queries, please email Michelle du Toit: michelle@southsouthnorth.org.

For communications-specific queries, please email Emma Baker: emma@southsouthnorth.org.

SDI Co-developed a Working Paper on Locally Led Adaptation

As part of our climate justice work, SDI co-developed a working paper entitled “Locally Led Adaptation From Principles to Practice”, highlighting the value of Locally Led Adaptation (LLA) in managing climate risks faced by local communities and Indigenous peoples.

The paper was co-developed by a consortium of global partners working together to deliver the Adaptation Action Coalition’s Locally Led Adaptation Workstream. These partners are Centro para la Autonomía y Desarrollo de Los Pueblos Indígenas (Center for the Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples), the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute, ENDA, Huairou Commission, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, the International Institute for Environment and Development, Save the Children Australia, Slum Dwellers International, SouthSouthNorth, and World Resources Institute.

Presently, LLA recognises that there is value in local knowledge and expertise in addressing climate risk and ensures that local actors on the front lines of the climate emergency have equitable access to resources to build adequate resilience.

READ |The Worlds Poorest Have the Strongest Resilience, yet Their Voices Remain Unheard

May 2022, saw more than 70 organisations and governments across the globe endorsing eight Principles for Locally Led Adaptation which provide foundational guidance for an approach to adaptation which emphasises priorities on the ground.

There is a growing focus placed on ensuring that adaptation finance is accessible by grassroots players. Simultaneously, there is a growing body of knowledge and research offering guidance for the implementation of LLA and underscoring it as a global priority.

What the working paper addresses

The working paper SDI co-developed, reviews 21 examples of approaches to implementing the Principles for LLA through interventions, programmes and policies across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Caribbean and Latin America. The aforementioned paper provides real-life examples of how funders and governments can follow through on their commitments to fast-track and scale the implementation of LLA. Governance and financing processes that prioritise the agency of grassroots actors are vital for LLA. Adapting these processes to redress power imbalances and emphasise local priorities can be complex and challenging. This paper provides examples of approaches to make these shifts and demystify funders and governments’ steps to operationalise and scale adaption.

Subsequently, these approaches can be utilised to turn investments and commitments to LLA into policies, practices and actions to ensure that grassroots partners have equitable access to climate finance and are the centre of decision-making processes.

The Principles for Putting LLA into Practice

Principle 1: Devolving decision-making to the lowest appropriate level
Principle 2: Addressing structural inequalities faced by women, youth, children, people living with disabilities, the displaced, Indigenous peoples, and marginalized ethnic groups
Principle 3: Providing patient and predictable funding that can be accessed more easily
Principle 4: Investing in local capabilities to leave an institutional legacy
Principle 5: Building a robust understanding of climate risk and uncertainty
Principle 6: Flexible programming and learning
Principle 7: Ensuring transparency and accountability
Principle 8: Collaborative action and investment 

Recommended Strategies for Advancing LLA

Based on the review of 21 projects, the paper found recommended strategies for advancing LLA.

Early on funders and governments should pursue opportunities to scale LLA by increasing the amount of climate finance it allocates, improving the quality of finance by making it more accessible and flexible for grassroots actors, and adjusting governance and decision-making processes to ensure that those actors have agency in adaptation planning and implementation.

Undoubtedly, the Principles for LLA must be addressed holistically to ensure that adaptation investments, policies and interventions enable and scale LLA in a multitude of ways simultaneously.

Funders and governments are to commit to advancing active learning and research on LLA processes, outcomes and impacts to continue to fill knowledge and evidence gaps and improve the collective understanding of best practices for equitable and effective LLA.

We encourage funders and governments to ensure social equity is integrated into LLA efforts. This may include building such considerations into standard practices, processes and decisions, and investing in mechanisms which are specifically designed to support groups that experience disproportional vulnerabilities.

SDI co-developed this working paper alongside incredible partners. W encourage engagement around the implementation of the Principles of LLA and its importance in pro-poor urban development and ensuring grassroots players are at the fore of climate change solutions. 

Read the full report here. 

Reflections from SDI at WUF

This year, a delegation from SDI’s network attended the World Urban Forum (WUF), here are our reflections from SDI at WUF.

Katowice, Poland hosted this year’s event from Sunday the 26th of June to Thursday the 30th of June. 

Established in 2001 by the United Nations, WUF is the premier global conference on sustainable urbanisation. The event aims to examine one of the world’s most pressing issues today: rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies. 

Day 1 – 26th of June 2022

We attended UN Habitat‘s session focusing on ‘Grassroots Assembly’. The session highlighted the value and importance of localising Sustainable Development Goals, post-Covid-19 recovery and resilience, and building and maintaining partnerships.

Day 2 – 27th June 2022

Kickstarting the day, “Building a Cities4Children alliance” and a “Global Action Plan” dialogue were the first events to start the day for SDI. The WUF11 opening ceremony presented the perfect opportunity for a display of culture meets insightful dialogue. Delegates mingled with local and international officials, presenting the perfect networking opportunities.

A panel hosted by UN-Habitat tackled the issue of “Tackling the Slum Challenge” with housing ministers from South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe in attendance. The session saw interesting insights and informative yet challenging inputs from the Chair of SDI’s Board Joseph Muturi.

Delegates also met with Euan Crispin about their work with UCLG. The session presented a fresh perspective on some of the work, UCLG is producing.

We hosted a session entitled, ‘Recovery and Resilience: Community-led Strategies to Build Back Better in Informal Settlements.’ The session drew attention to the need to work with organised urban poor communities to address basic needs and services such as secure tenure, housing, food security, water and sanitation to build the resilience necessary to withstand future natural and manmade shocks and stressors. SDI at WUF

Day 3 – 28th of June 2022

The day was jam-packed, ranging from events with the World Health Organisation, Cities Alliance, DreamTown NGO, Habitat Village and The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Insights from the event highlighted the importance of the diversification of knowledge products. This may help to ensure active participation and communication between academia and communities.

Day 4  – 29th of June 2022

The delegates from SDI at WUF attended an amazing session with Plan International, Dream Town, World Vision and SDI co-presentation on the Inter-generational dialogue. The session consisted of video commitments collected by cell phone video across the world with youth speaking their truth. Shared by youth in person and online, in conversations with key professionals at the host institutions. This session was very interactive and the youth rose to the occasion and had a lot to contribute. 

A good exchange of ideas followed, with a number of new potential thematic collaboration points. 

It is clear that grassroots organisations are perhaps less well-represented at this year’s world urban forum than is ideal. Due to this, there was a lot of dialogue and exchange specifically facilitated by the co-habitat network around how to remedy this and raise the voices of grassroots CBOs.

Final Day – 30th of June 2022

Key Messaging

SDI at WUF11

Join SDI at WUF11! Slum Dwellers International is excited to be attending this year’s World Urban Forum (WUF) for its eleventh session.

We are hosting an event entitled, ‘Recovery and Resilience: Community-led Strategies to Build Back Better in Informal Settlements’ and participating in a number of other events. Join SDI at WUF11!

This year’s theme is Transforming our Cities for a Better Urban Future. It is set to provide greater insights and clarity on the future of cities based on existing trends, challenges and opportunities. WUF aims to create a space for the sharing of ideas and insights to craft solutions and ways in which cities can be better prepared to address future pandemics and an array of other shocks. 

WUF examines one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies. 

SDI Events at #WUF11

SDI is set to host a session entitled: ‘Recovery and Resilience: Community-led Strategies to Build Back Better in Informal Settlements’

When: Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Time: 16:30-18:00

Where: Multifunction Hall Room 17

Speakers: Beth Chitekwe-Biti, Joseph Kimani, Joseph Muturi, Melanie Chirwa, Michael Chanda, Rosę Molokoane, Sheila Magara, Theresa Carmpatana

Partner speakers: Louise Meincke – Plan International & Arne Janssen – Cities Alliance

SDI’s networking event at the upcoming WUF11 will showcase the innovative strategies implemented by SDI affiliates in 17 countries in responding to and recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, building on and creating meaningful partnerships between organised communities of the urban poor and other stakeholders that champion and institutionalise slum-friendly policy and practice for resilient cities.

Through a partnership supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and Cities Alliance, SDI affiliates were supported to use their tools and methodologies to effectively and urgently respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic and pandemic responses such as government lockdowns highlighted and exacerbated the many chronic stresses urban poor communities live with and struggle against daily. As such, the strategies implemented by SDI’s urban poor federations are about more than Covid-19 response and recovery: they are about sustainable, inclusive, and pro-poor urban development that provides communities with meaningful opportunities to work with government and other stakeholders to address issues such as food security, access to livelihood opportunities, skills training, and basic services like water and sanitation, as well as the need for accurate slum data to drive government responses in times of crisis and beyond.

Speakers from SDI and key partner organisations will exchange approaches, strategies and outcomes achieved in order to highlight best practices that can guide future developments while demonstrating the power of meaningful partnerships with organised communities of the urban poor to address recovery from Covid-19 and the building of resilient communities and cities.

The session will also demonstrate that to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and build inclusive and resilient cities; urban planners and policymakers must learn from innovative strategies employed by the urban poor to find lasting solutions.

Learn more about the session here.

Other SDI at WUF11 events

Monday 27 June 2022

Want to build a Cities4Children Alliance in your city or country? Come find out how.

Time: 13:30 – 15:00 CET

Where: Multifunction Hall: Rm 19

Visioning platform for a Global Action Plan to tackle the Slum Challenge

Time: 13:30 – 15:00 CET

Where: Multifunction Hall: Rm 17

SDI representatives speaking: Joseph Muturi

Tuesday 28 June 2022

Reshaping Communities through Art

Time: 12:30 – 14:00 CET

Where: Room A (Voices for Cities event)

SDI Representatives speaking: James Tayler

Strengthening the resilience of urban communities: Our way forward

Time: 16:30 – 18:00 CET

Where: Multifunction Hall: Rm 4

SDI Representatives speaking: Christine Mutuku

Wednesday 29 June 2022

Claiming and producing housing rights: cross-regional experiences from grassroots organisations and international networks. Part 1

Time: 09:00 – 10:00 CET

Where: UrbaMonde Exhibition stand

SDI Representative speaking: James Tayler

Leave no one and no place behind: Addressing inequalities within and between cities through SDG localisation

Time: 10:45 – 12:15 CET

Where: Room A (Voices from Cities event)

SDI Representative speaking: Joseph Muturi

Dialogue w UCLG: Democratising global reporting processes: Lessons from a partnership for equality.

Time: 12:30 – 13:30 CET

Where: UCLG Booth

SDI Representative speaking: Beth Chitekwe-Biti, Joseph Muturi, James Tayler and others.

Leaving no one in cities behind: Addressing inequalities through resilient infrastructure

Time: 14:30 – 16:00 CET

Where: Multifunction Hall: Rm 18

SDI Representative speaking: Theresa Carampatana

Intergenerational dialogue on urban fragility and resilience

Time: 14:30 – 16:00 CET

Where: Multifunction Hall: Rm 2

SDI Representative speaking: James Tayler

Multi-Level action for equitable and sustainable cities

Time: 16:30 – 18:00 CET

Where: Multifunction Hall: Rm 1

SDI Representative speaking: Rose Molokoane

Thursday 30 June 2022

Claiming and producing housing rights: cross-regional experiences from grassroots organisations and international networks. Part 2

Time: 9:30 – 10:30 CET

Where: UrbaMonde Exhibition stand

SDI Representative Speaking: James Tayler

Dialogue: Transforming cities through innovative solutions and technologies

Time: 10:00 – 12:00 CET

Where: TBC

SDI Representative Speaking: Joseph Kimani

Civil Society and Grassroots Roundtable

Time: 13:30 – 15:30 CET

Where: Roundtable Room 1

SDI Representative Speaking: Melanie Chirwa, Christine Mutuku, Beth Chitekwe Biti, Joseph Kimani, Sheila Magara

Dialogue: Greener Urban Futures

Time: 10:00 – 12:00 CET

Where: Auditorium

SDI Representative Speaking: Rose Mo​​lokoane

Join SDI at WUF11! Visit WUF11 for the full programme and to register for the event virtually.

The world’s poorest have the strongest resilience, yet their voices remain unheard

*This article was originally posted on the Climate Home News Website and was written by Sheela Patel and Sohanur Rahman.

Historically, the UN’s Conferences of the Parties (Cops) on climate change have been overwhelmingly focused on cutting emissions, but Cop26 felt different with resilience taking the fore.

As Cop president, the UK made adaptation a priority, establishing a two-year Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on a global adaptation goal and a target to balance adaptation financing with mitigation financing by 2025. There was substantial participation on behalf of the adaptation community, albeit largely online and outside the negotiating rooms.

These conversations have carried on, for example at this week’s online Gobeshona Global Conference, creating opportunities to make progress before Cop27 in Egypt.

Read more about the Gobeshona Global Conference here.

The rising significance of adaptation is underpinned by one key fact: the impacts of climate change are here now and set to escalate. However, despite feeling hopeful at times, the most recent climate negotiations still failed to match words about loss and damage, resilience, and adaptation with actions to actually protect the most affected people and areas.

While negotiators have only belatedly started thinking about how best to create the conditions to build greater climate resilience, communities, including our own, have already been doing this for decades.

In Bangladesh, we have been forced to build our resilience by enduring yearly cyclones among other natural disasters and to develop survival techniques like growing vegetables on water, rainwater harvesting, water ambulances, floating schools, and procedures for early warning and evacuation.

Similarly, shack-dwellers globally have learned to build and rebuild their homes in the face of climate disasters. For many the question is not whether the roof over their heads will blow away, but rather when, and how often.

Discover how community-led responses to Covid-19 in informal settlements led to resilience.

The injustice of climate impacts means the strongest resilience – ‘survival resilience’ built on compound crises – is developed by the world’s poorest communities. It is often informal and deeply local. Crucially, it is not fixed or static, due to the unpredictability of climate change impacts. International agreements require mechanisms that reflect this uncertainty.

They must also ensure that practical, local techniques and indigenous practices are coupled with external intervention. With only 10% of climate finance currently supporting locally-led adaptation, and just 2% reaching the most affected communities, we remain a long way from giving those experiencing the most significant climate-related disruption what they need.

Yet, the voices of those with the most knowledge to contribute to the discussion on adaptation and resilience continue to be pushed to the fringes of the Cop process and often go unheard worldwide. How can negotiations about the future remain inaccessible to those with the biggest stake?

A summit cannot truly deliver positive outcomes for youth, women, and indigenous people without their meaningful participation, yet at Cop26 they were outside being pushed back by police while big corporations were in the delegations.

The current system, based on the burning of carbon, resource extraction, exploitation of people in informal work and settlements, and concentration of vast amounts of capital, operates by locking out those who need the system itself to change for their survival. If the voices of those people had been given as much importance as those of 500+ fossil fuel lobbyists, Cop26 might have had a very different result.

Learn more about the outcomes from Cop26 here.

But the UN’s daily subsistence allowance for delegates from poorer countries is provided only until the official final day of negotiations, forcing many to leave before talks conclude. Covid-19 further compounds the inaccessibility of climate talks for people from the global south: most of our colleagues have yet to be vaccinated and none of us could afford to be stuck for weeks if we test positive at a conference.

While the media may have labelled Cop26 ‘the most inclusive Cop yet’, that does not mean it was meaningfully inclusive. Recent reports of Egyptian hotels raising their prices for Cop27 suggest the same mistakes risk being repeated.

Finally, the lack of progress since Cop26 indicates still too little sense of urgency. The latest IPCC report reinforced the need for urgent, transformative adaptive action, yet Cop26 concluded with more delay, more long-term targets, and more climate finance directed towards mitigation than adaptation efforts.

We – the global south – have been forced into adapting now, not in a year or two. Delays of even one year mean more people lose their homes and livelihoods, fewer children go to school and more girls end up in child marriage.

Developed nations and the media must change how they talk about climate change and the people it affects. It is not just a scientific issue. It is about jobs, homes, health, and survival. It is about people fleeing their countries as climate refugees.

If there is one thing Covid-19 has demonstrated, it is that the world is capable of rapid and widespread change in the face of a crisis and that solutions start with the community. If we take this approach with climate change, we might just start moving forwards.

Sheela Patel is the founder and director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (Sparc) and Sohanur Rahman is a youth activist from Bangladesh.