Slum Dwellers International (SDI)
Building the climate resilience of communities in the cities of Southern Africa
The Trafigura Foundation is supporting an initiative to deliver future-proofed slum upgrading in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The challenge
Africa’s population is urbanising rapidly, making climate adaptation in cities increasingly urgent, especially in informal settlements.
More than half of the urban population in cities and towns across Sub-Saharan Africa live in slums. People living in informal settlements are disproportionately more vulnerable than most to the effects of the climate emergency and extreme weather events such as heat, floods, and storms. Informal settlements are characterised by poor infrastructure and public services, leaving them vulnerable to hazards including floods, landslides, and heatwaves.
Climate adaptation funding rarely reaches these communities. and Existing initiatives are often hampered by weak institutional capacity and planning, with residents excluded from decision-making.
The solution
Slum Dwellers International (SDI) is a global movement with more than 30 years of experience organising urban poor communities to make their cities more inclusive and resilient. Equipped with a proven model of community-led, data-driven urban planning, SDI aims to accelerate the upgrading of slums with future-proofed solutions and to strengthen the voices of residents.
The SDI Secretariat is bin South Africa, and the SDI Network supports 22 country affiliates, mainly in Africa, with capacity-building, financial support, research and expertise.
Support from the Trafigura Foundation along other funders will enable SDI to plan, design, fund and deliver solutions for climate-resilient slum upgrading in eight cities in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. That includes promoting nature-based solutions to ecosystem degradation in slums and providing access to basic services like waste management, housing and sanitation.
Partnership impact
The goals of the partnerships include:
2,400 members of slum dwellers federations trained to run slum profiling and vulnerability assessments, contributing to urban planning in the 8 cities, where a total of 4 million people live in slums
400 slum upgrading initiatives implemented, supported by community-managed finance schemes pooling community savings with donor funding
50,000 slum dwellers with improved resilience to climate change
3 national organisations with increased capacity in finances, governance and fundraising, sustaining their impact over time
Visit SDI’s website
Other partnerships in the same area of work
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