Slum Dwellers International
Encyclopedia
Slum Dwellers International (SDI) is a global non-governmental organization
(NGO) that manages networks of the urban
poor and slum
dwellers that are organised into federations and which are usually based in the Global South. Its funders include the World Bank
, USAID and the Gates Foundation.
SDI argue that they work within the system in order to change it. The beginning point for SDI is the acknowledgement that poor people living in shack settlements are and will continue to be the major producers of houses in the South. In the globalised South, squatter camps, slums and shanty towns represent a real solution to the housing crisis experienced by the poorest of the poor. Contrary to the vision of civil society, the houses and structures constructed out of the detritus of urban waste and surplus are the logical answer to the need for shelter without tenure (Dr L Podlashuc - Class for Itself: an examination of praxis of Slum Dwellers International - UTS 2006)
According to SDI praxis of house building reflects their realisation that the top-down pressure from the IMF, World Bank etal on Southern state’s housing delivery needed to be matched by an opposite force from below. These authorities would have to feel the pressure from the homeless poor and for this pressure to have any lasting effect it had to be from organised communities ready to drive their own autonomous Development. If these organised communities were federated and were able to replicate people-driven housing development on a large scale supported by transnational alliances of shack/slumdwellers, then the pressure on government would intensify. This process SDI understood would generally oblige the state to participate in dialogue. SDI’s house building praxis appears in this light to be an understanding that what countries in the South need is not participation by the people in a government process, but government’s participation in a people’s process. It seems that the social movement soon recognized that in this regard the local federations of homeless people would play a vital, pioneering role. This represents a paradigm shift in the way economics and politics are understood in industrial society: for the first time the lumpenproletariat
have the power and capacity to be a profound influence on the dialectics of society. (Dr L Podlashuc - Class for Itself: an examination of praxis of Slum Dwellers International - UTS 2006)
According to SDI the agenda underpinning the vanguard praxis of house building is legitimising the poor’s claim on the ‘city’, to teach in situ how poor people not only survive in cities but how, more than any other class, they give cities their shape and their definition. And that this capacity must be recognised, valorised and utilised within broader, systemic developmental agendas. At the same time it is informed by a radical agenda, which seeks through realigning the relations of production in the favour of the poor to challenge Northern narratives on democracy and participation, as SDI’s Joel Bolnick states “We must make a distinction between mechanisms of learning and mechanisms of delivery. We are more interested in mechanisms of learning (and bringing) communities closer to participatory, democratic, accountable systems of governance.” (SDIa.2000)
The creation of generic horizontal relations and networks that encourage the poor to build their own domains in the face of the market’s (hegemony) demands also creates the possibility of a new social framework. By locating the building process within the milieu of the poor, and ordering the knowledge base around this mode of production in a horizontal, non-hierarchical and transnational form, SDI has evolved a praxis of housing production embedded in the conditions of social reproduction of the lumpenproletariat that reconfigures social relations in a deeper democratic form so that the poorest of the poor become a transformatory force from below. In this sense, building houses is a means to lumpen collective agency.
SDI affiliates range from groups of a few hundred (at present) in Zambia
to more than a million-and-a-half in India
. Some are decades old, others have been in existence for less than a year. SDI has a presence in the following countries; Cambodia
, India
, Kenya
(see "Camp of Fire
" project), Namibia
, Nepal
, South Africa
, Sri Lanka
, Swaziland
, Thailand
, Zimbabwe
, Madagascar
, Uganda
, Colombia
, Indonesia
, Malawi
, Lesotho
, Tanzania
, Zambia
, Argentina
, Brazil
and Ghana
.
and recently joined the World Bank and UN Habitat project 'Cities Alliance'. Sheela Patel, the Chair of SDI, is on the Policy Advisory Board of the Cities Alliance. In Mumbai
, SDI recently received $1.5 million from the World Bank to arrange consent for the eviction of people living near the railways.
when a militia affiliated with the ANC attacked the movement in Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban.
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
(NGO) that manages networks of the urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
poor and slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
dwellers that are organised into federations and which are usually based in the Global South. Its funders include the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, USAID and the Gates Foundation.
SDI argue that they work within the system in order to change it. The beginning point for SDI is the acknowledgement that poor people living in shack settlements are and will continue to be the major producers of houses in the South. In the globalised South, squatter camps, slums and shanty towns represent a real solution to the housing crisis experienced by the poorest of the poor. Contrary to the vision of civil society, the houses and structures constructed out of the detritus of urban waste and surplus are the logical answer to the need for shelter without tenure (Dr L Podlashuc - Class for Itself: an examination of praxis of Slum Dwellers International - UTS 2006)
According to SDI praxis of house building reflects their realisation that the top-down pressure from the IMF, World Bank etal on Southern state’s housing delivery needed to be matched by an opposite force from below. These authorities would have to feel the pressure from the homeless poor and for this pressure to have any lasting effect it had to be from organised communities ready to drive their own autonomous Development. If these organised communities were federated and were able to replicate people-driven housing development on a large scale supported by transnational alliances of shack/slumdwellers, then the pressure on government would intensify. This process SDI understood would generally oblige the state to participate in dialogue. SDI’s house building praxis appears in this light to be an understanding that what countries in the South need is not participation by the people in a government process, but government’s participation in a people’s process. It seems that the social movement soon recognized that in this regard the local federations of homeless people would play a vital, pioneering role. This represents a paradigm shift in the way economics and politics are understood in industrial society: for the first time the lumpenproletariat
Lumpenproletariat
Lumpenproletariat, a collective term from Lumpenproletarier , was first defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The German Ideology and later elaborated on in other works by Marx...
have the power and capacity to be a profound influence on the dialectics of society. (Dr L Podlashuc - Class for Itself: an examination of praxis of Slum Dwellers International - UTS 2006)
According to SDI the agenda underpinning the vanguard praxis of house building is legitimising the poor’s claim on the ‘city’, to teach in situ how poor people not only survive in cities but how, more than any other class, they give cities their shape and their definition. And that this capacity must be recognised, valorised and utilised within broader, systemic developmental agendas. At the same time it is informed by a radical agenda, which seeks through realigning the relations of production in the favour of the poor to challenge Northern narratives on democracy and participation, as SDI’s Joel Bolnick states “We must make a distinction between mechanisms of learning and mechanisms of delivery. We are more interested in mechanisms of learning (and bringing) communities closer to participatory, democratic, accountable systems of governance.” (SDIa.2000)
The creation of generic horizontal relations and networks that encourage the poor to build their own domains in the face of the market’s (hegemony) demands also creates the possibility of a new social framework. By locating the building process within the milieu of the poor, and ordering the knowledge base around this mode of production in a horizontal, non-hierarchical and transnational form, SDI has evolved a praxis of housing production embedded in the conditions of social reproduction of the lumpenproletariat that reconfigures social relations in a deeper democratic form so that the poorest of the poor become a transformatory force from below. In this sense, building houses is a means to lumpen collective agency.
SDI affiliates range from groups of a few hundred (at present) in Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
to more than a million-and-a-half in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Some are decades old, others have been in existence for less than a year. SDI has a presence in the following countries; Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
(see "Camp of Fire
Camp of Fire
Camp of Fire is a slum development programme in Nairobi, Kenya, which has been initiated by Slum Dwellers International, where established slum-dwellers have promised to build proper houses, schools, and community centers without any government money, in return for land they have been illegally...
" project), Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
, Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
.
Support
SDI is enthusiastically supported by a number of prominent World Bank intellectuals such as Arjun AppaduraiArjun Appadurai
Arjun Appadurai is a contemporary social-cultural anthropologist focusing on modernity and globalization, based in New York.Appadurai was born in Mumbai , India and educated in India before coming to the United States. He graduated from St...
and recently joined the World Bank and UN Habitat project 'Cities Alliance'. Sheela Patel, the Chair of SDI, is on the Policy Advisory Board of the Cities Alliance. In Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, SDI recently received $1.5 million from the World Bank to arrange consent for the eviction of people living near the railways.
Solidarity
In October 2009, SDI made a statement in solidarity with Abahlali baseMjondoloAbahlali baseMjondolo
Abahlali baseMjondolo , also known as AbM or the red shirts is a shack-dwellers' movement in South Africa which is well known for its campaigning for public housing. The movement grew out of a road blockade organized from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban in early 2005 and now...
when a militia affiliated with the ANC attacked the movement in Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban.