Focus Areas

Water & Sanitation

The provision of adequate sanitation to the urban poor has increasingly come to the fore across the SDI network. Incremental approaches to informal settlement improvement are key to a long-term process that develops community capacity alongside infrastructure. With water and sanitation at the forefront of key challenges faced in slum dweller communities, federations have reached out across the SDI network, as well as to the private sector and other international ...

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Public Amenities

Defined as resources or facilities provided by the local government or city council for public use, public amenities are services provided to the public such, playgrounds, public toilets and community centres. In reality, these resources are reserved for the “formal” citizens of cities excluding the urban poor. Appreciating the value these community areas contribute in terms of mobilisation and building a sense of community, federations around the Global South have ...

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Land & Tenure Security

Lack of secure land tenure and security leading to forced evictions and displacement are a common reality for the majority of slum dwellers around the world. As the rate of urbanization continues to rapidly increase and governments continue to struggle to meet the basic needs of their populations, the cycle of squatting lingers. Hundreds of thousands of urban poor populations build settlements upon land that does not belong to them ...

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Other Infrastructure

In order to better plan cities and the management of urban growth, the development of basic infrastructure is a key component to the cohesion of a community. Often ignored as a part of the city, slum communities often lack basic organization structures such as roads, electricity, sewers, etc. These structures are not only a means to basic services but help unify and connect communities to the city grid. In addition ...

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Livelihoods

In addition to the development of slum communities, federations put in place programmes to improve the livelihoods of these slum populations. These programmes surround the implementation of income generating activities that not only benefit the community and the savings groups funds, but also provides an employment opportunity for community members. Taking into account that many slum populations struggle to find steady work within the city due to their lack of ...

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Housing

As a fundamental right, adequate housing for every citizen is the bare minimum a population can ask of their government. With the current rates of urban growth, cities have been unable to meet the housing needs of their people, leading families no option but to construct informal housing using whatever materials are available. Built upon one another and sprawling around and within cities, these informal homes become the defining element ...

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