Slum Dwellers International Board Meeting – February 11,12, 2005. Nairobi, Kenya

 

Board members:

 

Jockin – India

Sonia – Philippines

Edith – Namibia

Patrick – South Africa

Sheila – Zimbabwe

Ezekiel – Kenya

Sheela – India (NGO)

Jane – Kenya (NGO)

 

Did not arrive: Somsook and one Fed leader (Thailand)

 

Coordinators:

 

Jockin – India

Celine – India

Joel – South Africa

 

Apologies:  Rose (South Africa).

 

Secretariat:

 

Bunita (South Africa)

 

Other attendees:

 

Anaclaudia – Brasil (NGO)

Davious – Zimbabwe

Debbie – South Africa (NGO)

Plus 12 Muungano members and 3 Pamoja Trust staff

 

DAY 1

 

The meeting began with two brief coordinators reports. Joel felt there was a need to re-think the way SDI takes on new initiatives. Sdi should not feel compelled to respond to every country request for support but should be selective in how it opens new fronts. In cases where it decides to decline requests for intervention it should be able to work out alternative forms of support. Joel also reported on the four events in 2004 where SDI engaged international agencies. On the one hand these events helped SDI leaders to understand and play on the international stage with greater effectiveness, but on the other hand these were generally very alienating experiences and SDI needed to explore more ways to engage international agencies on their terms.

 

Celine said that there was a need for a different approach to scaling up; rather than measure our effectiveness in terms of numbers of affiliates we need to guage how effectively SDI strengthens local leadership and their support NGOs so that  local practices of enablement, autonomy, transparency and capacity to engage outside actors is constantly strengthened. She indicated that she had been away on a 13 month sabbatical and that she had now returned with the intention of focusing on ways and means to strengthen existing savings schemes, Federations, leaders and support NGOs.

 

Board Members than produced brief country reports. Board members were asked to focus on three key areas: problems with leadership; problems with scaling up and overall successes. It was agreed that key issues would be extracted from these reports and returned to towards the end of the meeting for further discussions.

 

Edith reported that in Namibia the Federation continues to grow but the leadership base remains static. As a result the movement was a bit static. The Namibia alliance has the will but lacks the capacity to scale up and move beyond its comfort zones. The challenge for Namibia was to build on its solid foundations instead of remaining stuck and facing the inevitable decline in participation. Savings, access to land and house construction continue steadily – based on  very good relationships with local authorities. Namibia needed SDI assistance to use these assets to scale up.

 

Sonia reported that the Federation in the Philippines continued to have a very high rate of savings. In the past year the Federation has had to deal with several internal leadership problems. Two senior leaders were expelled: one for sexual harassment and the other for using the Federation as a vehicle for party political elections. This was a very difficult challenge since the leaders had significant support, decided to contest the allegations and threatened to divide the Federation if they were forced to exit. The Federation’s strategy was to draft a code of conduct for leadership, have it endorsed by all savings groups and on that basis proceed to expel these leaders. The Federation has become stronger as a result. As opposed to Namibia where there are few leaders, in the Philippines most members want to be leaders and as a result there is avery strong leadership core. In terms of scaling up the Philippines are facing enormous challenges. They have moved from savings on a small scale to planning and participating in huge national developments. They are engaged in big projects with the Asian Development Bank and the Philippines Government. They are dealing with projects that range from relocation of thousands of families to be affected by the railway upgrade through the country and the IloIlo flood control project that will affect 7 thousand families. Their successes include these and 13 other projects in 9 cities. These projects involve land negotiation and acquisition, and the upgrading of infrastructure. There other success has been the setting up of their won Urban Poor Development Fund managed at community level and capitalised by a mandatory savings of 50 pesos per Federation member per month. The Fund is now sufficiently well capitalized for there to be inter-regional borrowing and soon to be used to finance land and infrastructure development. The Philippines need exposure to and from India to learn about successful relocation and resettlement. The intention that the Federation start a training hub in Cambodia has yet to get on track.

 

Patrick reported that after a long period of stagnation there is growth in the South African Federation once more. For more than two years people have been too focused on structure and positions and not on poverty and the struggles of the poor. This has resulted in an almost intractable power struggle that will be resolved next week when the national leaders meet, either through reconciliation or separation into separate Federations. South Africa has no problem in growing leaders but now has a problem of severe leadership conflict – the direct result of a poorly planned and poorly implemented process of restructuring. The leadership conflict and a restructuring process that has weakened the Federation and over-strengthened the role of professionals, especially in the management of the Federation’s uTshani Fund, has resulted in a drying up of resources for development. All decisions are etiher taken by disputed leadership or by support NGOs who have been given too much power. This has made scaling up almost impossible. Successes, however, have included the deepening of the partnership with the Durban Metro, now a benchmark for people/public partnership in SA, as well as the successful negotiation for subsidies owed the Federation in three provinces. Houses have been completed in Southern and Western Cape and there have been project approval in several cities. However this has followed a very formal route and the Federation’s role has been little more than constituting the beneficiaries. The South Africans need help around the way uTshani has become a technical instrument out of the hands of the community and unable to deliver. They also need help with savings.

 

At this point Debbie intervened and pointed out that People’s Dialogue was in a critical cash crunch with less than R12,000 in its accounts. People’s Dialogue is owed R2,7 million by Misereor, but their major donor has been making it very difficult for them to draw down these funds, This is because there has been a record of four years of inadequate financial reporting. This is now being addressed but the funders are being very demanding that reporting requirements be met before funds are released. Whilst there are certainly internally based causes for this crisis, People’s Dialogue has been dismayed by Misereor’s unwillingness to find an interim solution – especially in light of the fact that failure to provide bridging funds could certainly result in closure of PD with serious consequences for the Federation. Debbie requested that SDI consider giving PD a short term loan of R500,000 to cover its running costs for 2 months. This will be repaid once external funds were secured. However this loan would only be requested once time had run out for Misereor to release funds and even then once a guarantee had been provided by Misereor that funds would flow.

 

Sheela suggested that were not any major leadership problems in Zimbabwe. There had been such problems in the past but the collective leadership had succeeded in reducing tensions by challenging bad practices. The Federation’s numers were growing all the time but there were many obstacles to scaling up. High inflation rates is making house construction a virtual impossibility. The political situation makes it difficult to function normally. External funders have not helped either. In a case of misplaced good intentions, Misereor has refused to allow its funds to be used to upgrade land that had been forcefully expropriated by the Mugabe Government. The Federation concurs that in Zimbabwe, land reform was, and remains, a tool for an illegitimate government to hold onto power. However the situation is such that the only land that is being allocated to the poor in cities is land taken away by force from white farmers. The poor really have no options. They should not have to continue to live in shacks in overcrowded slums. They cannot afford to purchase land on the open market. Now they are being restricted, to an extent, by external donors, to develop land that they secure – not without difficulty – as a result of their negotiations with the local governments. The Zimbabwe Federation continues nevertheless to secure land for its members, with pilot land projects in virtually every main town and city in the country. House construction is taking place in three cities. The Zimbabweans requested assistance in finding ways to maximize the use of their fund in a hyper-inflationary environment.

 

Shekar reported that NSDF in India now operate in 54 cities. This expansion has compelled the Federation to develop a new leadership structure. At recent elections (in October last year) five national presidents were chosen. A major focus in the months and years ahead will be the devolution of Jockin’s responsibilities to this leadership of five Presidents. When it comes to leadership, the core leaders of the Federation and Mahila Milan have to be constantly vigilant. Many leaders in the Federation try to imitate political leaders. This is one of their biggest challenges. That is why NSDF and Mahila Milan insist that leaders have to first participate in daily savings and engage actively in their settlements issues before scaling up their activities, in the same spirit, to the regional and national levels. The scaling up in India has reached phenomenal proportions and there is now a high demand from governments and from communities for Federation activities. Recent events are providing the Indian Federation with new challenges. For many years – from the 1970’s to the mid 1990’s the Government did not support them. Since 1996 there has been increasing engagement and many examples of considerable success. But late last year the Mumbai Municipal Corporation started to demolish hutments and shacks throughout the city. An estimated 60,000 houses have been either partially or completely demolished. For the Indian Federations the way forward is clear. They are convinced that they have to continue to strengthen their Federation (currently 3 million strong) so that they can tell government what they want, make sure that Government takes notice, and demonstrate that the Federation can help the state come up with solutions to complex problems. The South Indian Federations have been hard hit by the tsunami and NSDF asked SDI to assist through exchange programmes and through the seeding of emergency funds.

 

Ezekiel spoke for the Kenya Federation - Muungano. He said there was a need for a more workable leadership structure. At the moment there were only community leaders and one or two people with regional or national responsibilities. This was regarded as inadequate. These leaders face a real challenge in trying to change the mindset and consciousness of the poor. People join the Federation because they have heard of its achievements but they expect instant solutions to be delivered for them. It is important that the leaders try to get them to see the Federation as a very long term home. There are many problems in terms of scaling up. The Federation is becoming increasingly dependent on resources from Pamoja, and Pamoja does not seem to have a mechanism to enable it to respond swiftly to Federation needs and requests. This inability to respond quickly is reinforced with a staggering attention to minor details, which makes problem solving more difficult and leads to long delays. This explans in part why it has taken the Federation two years to construct 34 housing units in Kambi Moto, Huruma. The Kenya alliance has developed very good enumeration skills. Their enumerations are ongoing in dozens of slums throughout Kenya. New successes include the conducting of enumerations together with the Government. The Federation has also launched Akiba Mashinani Trust, but like its counterpart in South Africa it is not controlled directly at community level and gets tied up by the bureaucratic conditions of the State and the donors. The NGO then becomes the regulator of these external demands. This is why the efforts by India, Philippines and Zimbabwe to create People’s Funds through regular savings is so important. The Kenyans have also been able to build community toilets (as have the Zimbabweans, Ugandans, Sri Lankans and South Africans). The Federation now has significant success with the management of loans and loan repayments, especially in Toi Market. It has been able to secure land for its members – free of charge. It has contributed to the prevention of evictions and through its negotiations with the State has been able to reduce the safety zone along the railway lines from 30 metres to 6 metres, thereby saving many dwellings from demolition.

 

Anaclaudia Rossbach created history when she presented the first report to SDI Board by an affiliate from Latin America. She informed the Board that a new initiative had started in Brasil. This was the result of longstanding negotiations between Paulo Teixeira (former head of Housing in Sao Paulo), Cogi Pather (Head of Housing Ethekwini) brokered by Joel.  A local NGO has been started by by herself and Sandra Simoes, with a board made up of highly competent professionals who were formally housing officials in the Sao Paulo Housing Secretariat. The new process had strong links with communities, many of whom had already been exposed to SDI methodologies through their links to the South Africans. There was already a pressing need for SDI to assist the NGO and some sub-Metros to start enumeration exercises in slums in a number of Brazilian cities. Anaclaudia was under no illusion that she was going to be working in an environment that was likely to find it difficult to respond enthusiastically to non-party political mobilization through pragmatic strategies but was clear that this was an approach that was sorely missing in the urban social movements in Brasil.

 

This was followed by brief reports on many of the SDI affiliates who were not in attendance. The Board was informed that the Malawi Federation had grown rapidly in the last year and boasted over 100 groups in both major cities – Lilongwe and Blantyre. Relations with the local government in Blantyre had progressed at a brisk pace and the Federation had arranged an MoU with the city that included a partnership in one upgrading and one relocation project.

 

The Malawians heard from the coordinating team that savings groups had been started in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in the year 2000 but had received very little support in the years that followed. Instead they were absorbed into the local WaterAid projects. The Malawians took it upon themselves to go to Tanzania and see if they could find the four communities that had started savings some five years back. They succeeded in this effort , revived the groups, assisted a duo of young professionals, already familiar with SDI, to set up their own NGO to support the 4 savings groups that had survived. Improvement of systems will be followed by scaling up, with support from Malawi and the Secretariat.

 

The Swazi Federation has had a much more troubled history. It has never internalized key Federation rituals. It has mobilized low and lower-middle income families into its savings schemes, with an attendant hierarchy that has given position, priority and access to resources to the richer and more powerful – at the expense of the poor. They have made their programme dependent on external resources that they have been unable to sustain. The inevitable breakdown has occurred and the South African Federation (stuck in its own crisis) will have to assess the situation and propose a reponse to be taken by SDI. This is not likely to happen in the immediate future and in the meantime participation declines. Participation in a water project in the large village of Siteke might, at least, regenerate activity, even if the deeper class contradictions remain un-resolved.

 

Ghana has matched Malawi in its impressive growth. It now operates in many Ghanaian towns and cities, has thousands of members in hundreds of groups and saves on a daily basis. Dialogue has been opened with the Ghana Metropolitan Assembly. This engagement with state institutions as a strategy to develop alternatives to evictions is new to the Ghana context but for the moment has been embraced with enthusiasm. A boost from SDI will propel the Accra groups into pilot development projects. An enumeration of Old Fadama is to start in March. Settlement profiles of all slums has been completed.

 

The Zimbabwe Federation reported that the Zambia Federation had grown and strengthened in Livingstone, in part because of the support it has received from the Vic Falls groups. The Lusake groups have not fared as well. The Zimbabweans expressed the idea that real scaling up would only commence once the right support NGO had been identified.

 

It was then the turn of the Kenyans to report on the situation in Uganda.  The Uganda Federation is growing steadily. Its relationship with the State remains strong – perhaps too strong since Government officials and politicians are able to influence Federation priorities at will. There is a need here as well for a intermediary institution. In the meantime the first toilet block is two-thirds completed and spirits are high. The Kampala City Council, Central Division, has allocated two additional sites to the Federation where they will construct toilet blocks and medium density housing units.

 

The Filipino alliance reported on the Cambodia situation. They highlighted that in spite of leadership problems similar, if not more extreme than South Africa, and in spite of interference from many service delivery NGOs, the Federation continued to expand and to remain involved in the citywide slum upgrading projects as a partner with local and national Government.

 

The Indians reported on Sri Lanka. The Board was told how severely effected the Federation members had been by the Tsunami with many of them living in refugee camps, having lost, homes possessions and loved ones. The Federation had engaged the Government of Morotuwa and had been given a suitable parcel of land on which to build an initial one hundred starter homes.

 

The Federation in Nepal has set up a National Urban Poor Development Fund in partnership with Government and has started several small land and housing projects.

 

After a lengthy break the group re-convened to discuss some of the salient issues raised in the course of the day.

 

KEY ISSUES DAY ONE

 

1. East Africa Hub

 

The coordinators challenged the Kenyan alliance, asking them if they were willing and able to take on the responsibility of being the hub for East Africa. This means they would be expected to anchor SDI support for emerging Federations in Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia. Muungano and Pamoja were given until the next morning to make a decision.

 

2. Leadership

 

SDI made the decision to send a clear message to all its affiliates about issues relating to leadership. Leadership challenges had been a key theme of the day’s discussion, and although SDI was reluctant to develop a policy document or code of conduct, it was agreed that basic conditions needed to spelt out to all the affiliates.

 

SDI will recognize affiliates only if:

 

-        Leadership does not exploit the Federation process for material self-gain;

-        Leadership keeps out of party politics; [1]

-        Leaders set an example by saving on a daily basis

-        Leaders are rooted in their communities through fully operational savings schemes that have a majority participation by women;

-        Leaders who are found guilty of sexual harassment are dismissed.

 

3. SDI and Tsunami

 

Jockin reported that SDI groups were affected by the Tsunami disaster in India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. It was agreed that SDI would steer funds towards these affected areas. This would apply to existing funds as well as to additional funds to be raised by the Secretariat, specifically for the purpose of disaster relief. These funds would going into a revolving fund for emergency relief, restoration of livelihood and reconstruction of housing and infrastructure. ACHR would take primary responsibility for Thailand and Indonesia and SDI for India and Sri Lanka.

 

DAY 2

 

1.      Evaluation

 

Joel reported on the pending evaluation of SDI. This evaluation has been conceived as 360 degree evaluation – meaning that all aspects of the process get equal attention: Federation to community, Federation to NGO, Federation to Govt. and international agency, Federation and NGO to donor. Furthermore the evaluation is about SDI and how it enables local processes. It is not about the local Federations. This means that field visits by the evaluators must coincide with international exchange programme activity. The Board accepted the proposal from the funders and the coordinators that the evaluators would visit Zimbabwe, Malawi and Kenya in Africa and Philippines, Sri Lanka and India in Asia. Field visits would take place from mid March to early April [2] . This presented problems in regard to Zimbabwe since national elections in that country have been scheduled for March 31. [3]

 

2 Kenya and the East Africa Hub

 

The Kenya alliance were given the opportunity to respond to the request presented to them the previous day: were they willing to play the lead support role for new initiatives in East Asia, especially Uganda. The Muungano’s reply was enthusiastic. They presented a detailed workplan for Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. This was a clear affirmation that they felt ready and able to play the lead role for emerging Federations in the region. Pamoja’s response was much more measured. They felt that if certain conditions were met, they would be able to play a greater support role in Uganda but were not willing to make offers that they would be unable to fulfil. The SDI Secretariat welcomed Muungano’s enthusiasm but felt that it would be more realistic to put a lot of energy into Uganda and then scale up to other country’s at a later date. In the meantime the co-ordinators would focus on Ethiopia and the Malawians would anchor the support activities in Tanzania. SDI will arrange a special savings workshop for Tanzania in mid March.

 

3. Loan to People’s Dialogue, South Africa.

 

SDI agreed to set aside the funds, in the form of a loan, for one month’s running costs for People’s Dialogue and to be approached for a second instalment should the need arise. Funds would be taken from Grow Peace in Africa but only after all attempts to get Misereor to release funds had been exhausted.

 

4. Urban Poor Funds.

 

SDI has raised funds for a one year research initiative into Urban Poor Funds. The funds have been provided my Misereor, through IIED with Diana Mitlin as co-ordinator. The Board agreed that there should be SDI linked coordinators on each continent and that the research should focus on SDI funds through the lens of the informal/formal tensions that come together in the funds. They also agreed that learning through exchanges should be directly linked to the research initiative and that the exchanges should include community leaders and fund management and personnel. For the SDI Board the main value of this research was to inform Federations and equip them with enough knowledge to be able to control these funds and the set of intermediaries they have spawned – such as CLIFF and SUF.

 

5. SDI Mentoring Programmes – Social, Technical, Financial.

 

The Board endorsed the concept of an SDI mentoring and training programme for Federation leaders and support NGOs. Thos internal “training” will focus on three areas: social to be coordinated by Celine and Rose, technical to be coordinated by Aaron and Shekar and financial to be coordinated by Somsook and Sonia.

 

6. Participation in SUF Board

 

Jockin informed the Board that he has been approached to serve on the advisory board to UN Habitat’s “Slum Upgrading Facility”. He has advised the CEO that he will participate only if representation is extended to include one other SDI colleague. This has been accepted. Jockin wanted to know if the SDI Board would approve of him representing them on this forum. The Board approved unanimously.

 

7. Exchange Programmes

 

A few exchange programmes were set for the next three month period. They are:

 

Philippines to Sri Lanka – March

Philippines to India – March

South Africa to Philippines – March

Namibia to Kenya – March/April

Ghana enumeration – March

Savings Workshop, Tanzania – March

Kenya to Malawi – April

Malawi to Kenya – April

Kenya to Zimbabwe – April