Slum Dwellers International

Slum Dwellers International is a federation of urban poor federations and grassroots organisations working on issues affecting informal settlement residents across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It promotes community-driven data collection, housing upgrading, tenure security, and advocacy through networks of savings groups, enumerations, and federated alliances. The organisation collaborates with municipal authorities, multilateral agencies, and academic institutions to scale community-led solutions to urban poverty.

History

Founded in 1996, the organisation emerged from earlier movements and experiences linked to community organising in the 1980s and 1990s, drawing on lessons from Kibera, Dharavi, Khayelitsha, Kibera slum, Maidan Jawaharlal Nehru and other major informal settlements. Early influences included grassroots groups such as the Kibera Community Self Help Project, Mahila Milan, SPARC (Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres), and federations like Federation of the Urban Poor and National Slum Dwellers Federation (India). Engagements with international actors including United Nations Human Settlements Programme, World Bank, International Labour Organization, United Nations Development Programme and regional bodies like the African Union shaped its strategic orientation. Key historical moments intersected with events such as the Habitat II Conference and policy shifts in cities like Mumbai, Cape Town, Nairobi, Delhi and São Paulo that foregrounded slum upgrading and tenure recognition.

Organization and Structure

The federation model builds on local savings groups, community leaders, and enumerators to form city-level federations connected through national and regional networks in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Governance draws on participatory practices similar to those promoted by Rudolf Arnheim, Paulo Freire, Amartya Sen, Elinor Ostrom and community development institutions like Mahila Milan and Slum Networking Programme. Partnerships and technical support come from research institutions including University of Cape Town, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, London School of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Nairobi, along with funding agencies such as Ford Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and multilateral lenders like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Decision-making typically involves elected representatives from local federations, regional coordinators, and thematic working groups engaging with municipal authorities in cities like Kigali, Accra, Jakarta, Manila and Lagos.

Programs and Activities

Core activities include community-led enumerations, savings schemes, informal settlement upgrading, tenure documentation, and pro-poor policy advocacy. Enumerations borrow methods tested in contexts such as Dharavi redevelopment, Kibera mapping, Slum Networking Programme, and participatory mapping projects linked to OpenStreetMap collaborations. Housing initiatives have included incremental construction pilots, in-situ upgrading, and relocation negotiations seen in Mumbai redevelopment, Cape Town informal settlement upgrading, Nairobi slum upgrading, and Kolkata neighbourhood interventions. Financial inclusion work engages with microfinance providers like Grameen Bank, SKS Microfinance, Equity Bank (Kenya), and community savings groups inspired by Village Savings and Loan Associations. Advocacy efforts have targeted city authorities, national ministries, and international fora including UN-Habitat, Habitat III, World Urban Forum and UN General Assembly sessions on the New Urban Agenda.

Partnerships and Networks

The federation maintains formal and informal links with a broad constellation of actors: grassroots organisations such as Mahila Milan, National Slum Dwellers Federation (India), Federation of the Urban Poor (Philippines), and Informal Settlements Network; academic partners including University of the Witwatersrand, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, University College London and Columbia University; funders like Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, European Commission and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency; and international organisations including UN-Habitat, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. The federation is part of broader coalitions with networks like Global Platform for the Right to the City, Cities Alliance, International Alliance of Inhabitants and campaigns connected to Habitat International Coalition and People's Dialogue. National and municipal engagements involve local governments in places such as Nairobi County, Mumbai Municipal Corporation, City of Cape Town, Manila City Hall and Bogotá administrations.

Impact and Criticism

Impact claims include documented improvements in tenure security, sanitation, housing conditions, and civic recognition in settlements across Kenya, India, South Africa, Philippines and Brazil. Evaluations have noted successful community enumerations influencing policies at UN-Habitat and lending decisions by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Critics and analysts from institutions like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and scholars from Oxford University, University of Cambridge and Yale University have raised concerns about scalability, the sustainability of donor-dependent projects, intra-federation accountability, and tensions in negotiating with authorities in cities undergoing rapid gentrification such as Mumbai, Nairobi and Cape Town. Debates in journals and conferences at Habitat III and World Urban Forum continue to address trade-offs between in-situ upgrading and market-driven redevelopment.

Category:Urban planning organizations Category:Housing organizations