Slum Dwellers International Kenya (SDI Kenya) is a small non-profit organisation that provides core technical and professional support to Muungano wa Wanavijiji. SDI Kenya acts as a secretariat for the movement, making connections to formal agents—such as city and central government institutions, and development partners. Over the past twenty years, SDI Kenya's role within the Muungano Alliance has been performed by two other organisations, Pamoja Trust (2000–2010), and Muungano Support Trust (MuST) (2010–2014).
Muungano wa Wanavijiji ('Muungano') is the Kenyan federation of slum dwellers and urban poor people. It is made up of groups of slum residents from cities and towns across the country. Muungano seeks to improve the quality of life of slum dwellers and urban poor people in Kenya through a process of policy advocacy, and through dialogue with central and local government, civil society, and private sector organizations. By and large, the federation proactively engages its members in savings groups.
Muungano is structured as a federation of nearly 1000 slum-based groups throughout the country. In its entirety, it has more than 100,000 members. As a federation, the movement is centrally facilitated by a set of ‘national leaders’ drawn from settlement groups in the counties where it works.
Each slum group is autonomous, seeking to catalyze community effort in its settlements, aimed at bettering living conditions. Some slum settlements will have one group and others will have a number of groups. Beyond working for their slum settlements, the groups share a methodology, and open themselves to the exchange of ideas and support with similar slum efforts in their towns, across counties, and beyond national borders.
Slum groups concern themselves with a broad range of issues which are specific to their settlements. Muungano federates around and supports groups on issues that affect their entire settlements—such as securing rights to the lands they occupy, or improving housing and delivery of services like water, sanitation and electricity. In doing this, groups are not a proxy for their communities, but a catalyst for residents' collective action.
The diverse interests of slum communities are reflected in the groups' membership and the movement more widely. These include owners of slum shacks, and their tenants, businesses, schools, health centers, and religious establishments. They also include social diversity—with members who are women and men, youth and adults, across ethnicities and religions.
Muungano is structured as a federation of nearly 1000 slum-based groups throughout the country. In its entirety, it has more than 100,000 members. As a federation, the movement is centrally facilitated by a set of ‘national leaders’ drawn from settlement groups in the counties where it works.
Each slum group is autonomous, seeking to catalyze community effort in its settlements, aimed at bettering living conditions. Some slum settlements will have one group and others will have a number of groups. Beyond working for their slum settlements, the groups share a methodology, and open themselves to the exchange of ideas and support with similar slum efforts in their towns, across counties, and beyond national borders.
Slum groups concern themselves with a broad range of issues which are specific to their settlements. Muungano federates around and supports groups on issues that affect their entire settlements—such as securing rights to the lands they occupy, or improving housing and delivery of services like water, sanitation and electricity. In doing this, groups are not a proxy for their communities, but a catalyst for residents' collective action.
The diverse interests of slum communities are reflected in the groups' membership and the movement more widely. These include owners of slum shacks, and their tenants, businesses, schools, health centers, and religious establishments. They also include social diversity—with members who are women and men, youth and adults, across ethnicities and religions.
Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT) is a housing development and finance agency, established in 2003 by Muungano wa Wanavijiji. It operates across nine counties in Kenya. Through community-led processes, AMT provides urban and rural low income communities with access to financial, and with technical solutions for affordable housing and basic services.
AMT builds the capacities of community organizations to undertake all aspects of financial intermediation, helping to reach low income people with suitable, high quality financial and related services that can be sustained. In this way, low income communities develop strong financial systems and improve their livelihood security, and people are helped to gain self-sufficiency, dignity, and economic stability.
AMT builds the capacities of community organizations to undertake all aspects of financial intermediation, helping to reach low income people with suitable, high quality financial and related services that can be sustained. In this way, low income communities develop strong financial systems and improve their livelihood security, and people are helped to gain self-sufficiency, dignity, and economic stability.