With 1.1 billion people living in informal settlements today, governments and policymakers can no longer afford to ignore the fact that informality is a dominant form of urbanisation. The pressing social, economic and environmental challenges can only be addressed with those living in informality, not against them.
However, the wealth of knowledge and experiences held by neighbourhood organisations, local NGOs as well as local and international federations of slum dwellers is often not sufficiently recognised, supported and leveraged.
This good practice collection, published by GIZ in collaboration with Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), features 14 practice-oriented case studies on such community-led approaches to inspire replication and up-scaling.
The collection was compiled as a contribution to the Global Peer Learning Series Urban Innovation for Just and Sustainable Cities, convened and hosted by GIZ and Cities Alliance on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development throughout 2024.
It aims to recognise and learn from existing experiences in which those living in informality have developed urban innovations that advance more just and sustainable cities.
The case studies draw on experiences shared during the Peer Learning as well as the wealth of grounded cases in which SDI, IIED and other civil society groups have been involved over the last few years.
The collection describes innovations that bring the assets, capacities, and resources of informal settlements to the forefront. It showcases ways to enhance their impact and demonstrates how communities can move towards more transformative outcomes. The cases are clustered around four main innovation categories:
Strengthening local partnerships and local leadership for transformation
Generating and activating community-led local knowledge and prototyping interventions
Re-imagining local finances and mobilising local resources
Building alliances to re-frame global debates and agendas
The publication aims to empower local communities to advocate for socially just, pro-poor, and climate-friendly urban transformation with existing scalable solutions. It also informs global advocacy efforts, highlighting the central role of organised urban poor communities in urban transformation processes.
