Voicing the urban poor: experience from an energy justice program for and by slum dwellers

SDI emerged in the mid-90’s through peer-to-peer networking of organised slum dweller movements. Today this international network spans 32 countries where grass roots community organisations are supported by professional support NGOs in the building of social movements, transforming urban environments, and securing a more inclusive and resilient future for the world’s urban poor. SDI’s mission is to build the voice and agency of slum dweller communities, with a special focus on the role of women, in order to achieve inclusive cities in which the urban poor are to be at the centre of strategies and decision-making for equitable urban development.

SDI has a commitment to project typologies that produce learning at scale around clean energy access as part of its informal settlement upgrading agenda. Since 2014 SDI has been involved in the field of access to energy particularly in Africa, India, and the Philippines where the SDI Energy Justice Programme leverages communityled collection of disaggregated energy access data (using the Know Your City tools), community empowerment programs, and pro-poor access models in contribution to energy access goals. In the face of growing needs of access to many essential services in slums, SDIs model provides bottom-up, innovative, and adaptable methodological options for catalysing pro-poor change at settlement, city, national, and global levels.