Since the 1980s, Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) has worked to place the urban poor at the heart of the politics and economics that make modern cities unequal and exclusionary. Through its savings-based city funds and global finance facility, SDI helps communities become the main drivers of change, transforming their slums into safe, secure, affordable neighbourhoods. SDI’s local funds defy conventional housing microfinance, through three segments: organized end users; informal or semiformal financial intermediaries; and the stand-ins for the formal financial sector. This paper looks at how and why SDI has navigated these segments to transform urban areas by monetizing social capital through local-level finance institutions.
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