Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) is a confederation of country-level federations of the urban poor from 33 countries of the Global South. It was launched in 1996 and became a formally registered entity in 1999. Its mission is to link poor urban communities from cities across the South to transfer and adapt successful mobilisation, advocacy and problem solving strategies they develop in one location to other cities, countries and regions. After an inception period of 6 years in which SDI operated small capital funds through support from bilateral donors and foundations, SDI formally established in October 2007 a financing facility called the Urban Poor Fund International (UPFI). UPFI is a self-governed, self-managed, ongoing and expanding financial facility that provides capital to member national urban poor funds, managed by members of SDI. Since its start in 2007, UPFI has been supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Norwegian Government and by Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency).
The objective of the project was to review UPFI with regard to the degree to which it was achieving its objectives, the way it was operating, relationships to its supporters, its effectiveness, and the relevance of the underlying assumptions for creating UPFI.
The Philippines, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa
Assessment of capacities of the national and city-level federations of the urban poor:
to mobilise communities and enhance their participation
to leverage resources from public and private sector sources, including access to land and affordable finance
to promote pro-poor regulations and policies and participate in the design of these frameworks, and
to undertake innovative programmes/projects setting precedents for the transformation of regulatory and policy frameworks
The assessment was made through filed visits in five countries, interviews with a range of stakeholders including leadership from the communities, federation members, key officials of the local and national governments, financing institutions, academicians and various donors
Discussions with the SDI secretariat and leadership
Review of secondary documents like project proposals, management reports, progress reports, other evaluation reports, etc.
Five feedback sessions were organised after the field visits in the respective countries to share the preliminary findings
Five country review reports (The Philippines, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa)
One final report addressing the key evaluation questions and recommendations for improvement and areas that required the attention of the management
One sharing workshop involving the key decision makers and leadership of SDI
August to December 2011
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA