Review of the Urban Poor Fund International (UPFI) of SDI

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 the 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 the 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).

For SDI, the moment is now to have a more in depth look at UPFI, the degree to which it is achieving its objectives, the way it is operating, the relationships to its supporters, its effectiveness, the relevance of the underlying assumptions for creating UPFI, etc. In light of this SDI invited PRIA and two other researchers to undertake a review process that captures in-depth learning and related recommendations to enhance effectiveness of UPFI. The focus of the review includes the value of UPFI in respect of the following goals

• national and city-level federations of urban poor mobilise communities and enhance their participation;
• national and city-level federations leverage resources from public and private sector sources, including access to land and affordable finance;
• national and city-level federations promote pro-poor regulations and policies and participate in the design of these frameworks;
• innovative programmes/projects set precedents for the transformation of regulatory and policy frameworks;
• activities and organisations are scalable/replicable in a rapid manner, with potential for significant impact in relation to the magnitude of challenges faced.

The review has been supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with SIDA and Norwegian Government.