This series of six briefs celebrates the innovative efforts of organised groups of slum dwellers to tackle, recover from, and mitigate against the overlapping crises and multifaceted vulnerabilities of urban informality, such as inadequate infrastructure, environmental hazards, and social inequalities. By addressing these challenges, they work to mitigate the impact of these issues and improve their living conditions.
This brief highlights the crucial role of grassroots leadership in addressing complex urban challenges. It highlights community-driven efforts to strengthen local leadership, restore social safety nets, and build capacity to address both immediate shocks, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and long-term climate-related stresses. These initiatives are vital for promoting sustainable urban resilience. Key themes include reviving community savings schemes, catalysing new livelihood strategies, promoting health awareness, and actively supporting the inclusion of youth and women in leadership roles to ensure diverse representation and long-term community empowerment.
Examples include reviving savings groups in Uganda that had collapsed during the pandemic, organizing community-led health outreach during the Ebola outbreak in Kampala, and providing leadership training for young people in Tanzania to empower them as local advocates and future leaders within their communities.
The brief is part of the Building Resilience in Informal Settlements programme, a broader initiative led by Cities Alliance and Slum Dwellers International (SDI), with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The programme aims to support sustainable and inclusive development in informal settlements, focusing on locally-led climate adaptation and resilience building.
Other briefs in this series
Brief 2: Negotiating with Cities: Transformative Collaborations for Sustainable Resilience
Brief 3: Locally Led Infrastructure Projects: Small but Scalable Climate Adaptation
Brief 4: Mainstreaming the Marginalised Majority: A Grassroots Perspective on Gender and Youth
Brief 5: The Conflict Sensitive Nature of Working in Informal Settlements
Brief 6: Locally Led Environmental Management for Climate Resilience
