Where will the money come from? SDI and Local Level Finance

Since the 1980s, 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, which comprise three segments: organised 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 monetising social capital through local-level finance institutions.