Who are we?
Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA) is a non-profit and non-governmental organization established in 2011, working to mobilise and provide both technical and financial support to its community counterpart, Federation of Urban and Rural Poor (FEDURP). FEDURP comprises vulnerable women, men, youth and children who are mobilized around dynamic saving schemes, networked at settlement, city and national levels to drive a collective, bottom-up initiatives influencing change towards inclusive and resilient cities and localities, and contribute to national development agenda.
As FEDURP, we use tools and strategies such as daily savings, peer-to-peer exchanges, community profiling, enumeration, and mapping to organize a critical mass of poor localities – enabling us to engage with local and state authorities as partners in development rather than beneficiaries, and shift development priorities to be more inclusive and pro-poor and ultimately more resilient and sustainable. This critical mass provides a platform and opportunity for us the poor to change our own lives and the shape of our localities. Hence, “We mobilise ourselves in deprived communities to actively and meaningfully participate in our own development initiatives and processes.”
CODOHSAPA and FEDURP are part of Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) network which is a transnational social movement of the urban poor which has evolved over many years of peer[1]to-peer exchanges revealing a critical value of a network of community-based organization driven by the poor themselves. This alliance creates a synergy of professional and community knowledge and resources, and a platform that enhances productive consultations with local and state, and non-state actors to stimulate decisions and actions for the adoption and implementation of pro[1]poor policies and practices in community planning and development.
Our vision
CODOHSAPA and FEDURP’s vision is empowered urban poor communities for their social, economic and environmental transformation.
Our mission
CODOHSAPA and FEDURP seek to empower urban poor communities to improve their social, economic, and environmental conditions by creating spaces and opportunities through collaborative actions to champion their own transformative and development agenda.
Communities
Trainings
Active Members
Our primary strategies
- Mobilizing and organizing the urban poor through women-led savings groups;
- Meeting regularly to articulate issues of common interest for the betterment of our localities;
- Building and legitimizing local knowledge through peer-to-peer learning exchanges, technical capacity building measures and support to indigenous innovations;
- Building platform and voice through community-led profiling, enumeration and mapping through which we dialogue for policy change using our number, resources, data and team work;
- Bridging the finance gap through Fordibambai (For the Future) Trust (FT) and other pro-poor financial instruments;
- Supporting ‘incremental, in situ slum upgrading where possible and relocation where necessary’ through the co-production and joint implementation of innovative precedent setting projects;
- Scaling-up through targeted advocacy and influencing city-wide and national policies, plans and investments, as well as co-investment (with cities and private sector) in viable, pro-poor infrastructure and related investments; and,
- Mobilizing informal settlement youth through Know Your City (KYC) campaigns, both TV and data, to maximise youth participation and inclusion in policy dialogue and other relevant desired actions.
Core values
- We believe in integrity;
- We believe in respect for human dignity;
- We believe in inclusiveness and equity;
- We believe in openness and accountability;
- We believe in collaborative partnership;
- We believe in proactive action; and,
- We believe in care and compassion.