Strengthening marginalized communities fight COVID-19

Location: Zimbabwe (Harare, Epworth)

Dialogue on Shelter is a non-profit, non – governmental organisation based in Harare, Zimbabwe which partners with the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation (The Federation) to strengthen community development initiatives by linking them with the appropriate professional, government, and funding institutions. We also hope aim to achieve more accurate research and policy responses from these institutions by linking them with grassroots organizations.

Dialogue operates by facilitating and providing institutional support to initiatives developed by networks of organised poor communities. Our organization understands that the cultivation of knowledge and resources within poor communities are essential pre-requisites for any community-driven development initiative. This implies that the first intervention for change lies in capacity building and the continued support of local organisations and the development priorities that they set themselves. Dialogue on Shelter recognizes that considerable investment has to be made in developing the networks of the urban poor with the intent and the capacity to work with stakeholders to negotiate land tenure, infrastructure, housing and livelihood solutions that are acceptable for their respective communities. Dialogue has spent the last 18 years developing the framework to change the established power dynamic inherent in development, and design successful interventions (at scale) that lead to significant reductions in urban poverty.

The Federation is a savings-based social movement that has grown out of the recognition that the extreme poor need access to resources for basic subsistence and to serve as a platform for government engagement. In the late 1980s, a small group of pavement dwellers in India recognized the need for poor people to have access to cheap credit, and thus began pooling their money to offer small, interest-free loans. They then used the combined savings to negotiate with government for the needs and interests of the poor. This initial “Savings Scheme” became the foundation for Mahila Malan (“women together” in Hindi) – and it gave birth to the savings mobilisation process in South Africa, which then spread to Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe, the Federation has been operating since 1998 and at its peak has generated economic and social support for 43 000 families in 52 cities towns/centres using daily savings and loans for social organization. Affiliated Savings Schemes in the Federation operate in broadly similar ways, but they all have their own internal rules. These organizations are united by a common development approach and share a common vision:

1. All member organizations/community groups are rooted in squatter settlements, unplanned settlements, backyard shacks or hostels, peri urban areas and rural areas;

2. All organizations /community groups are involved in daily savings, loans and loan-repayments

3. All organizations are managed at the grassroots level by the members themselves; and

4. Whilst men are not excluded, the vast majority of Federation members are women (70%).
   

Motivation

The whole world is currently under siege of the corona virus pandemic also known as COVID19. Zimbabwe now has 34 official reported cases of COVID19 and one fatality (Ministry of health and Child welfare; 2 May 2020). Sadly, statistics from the developing world do not reflect reality. Notably, health sectors in most of the countries in the developing countries are either strained or collapsed. Therefore, both prevention and treatment capacities are typically non-existent. Informal/slum settlements in Zimbabwe such as Epworth, are even worse-off as they are often excluded in the city’s development programs.

It is against this backdrop that a packaged of holistic preventive measures can be the only realistic chance to slow the COVID19 pandemic in these informal settlements. More importantly, such comprehensive measures also have scope to enable informal settlements residents to better respond to this global health crisis. The fact that these informal settlements usually sit on land on the margins on sites that are neither rural nor urban further compounds the question of services delivery. Overcrowding in slums also presents a practical challenge regarding how prevention measures such as social distancing can be applied. The absence of potable water also negatively impacts on frequent hand-washing routines that are recommended as the first primary preventive step.

These official figures have, however, been contested as the number of unreported cases remain unknown. The country’s collapsed health system has been cited as the reason for a seemingly low incidence rate. In the absence of systematic and tailor-made government efforts aimed at building a comprehensive and accurate appreciation of the pandemic, social media has come in to fill in the gap. Yet, often information disseminated through these platforms has been proven to be premised on spurious claims without empirical basis.

Dialogue on Shelter and Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation follow a set of methodologies (linked to Shack Dwellers International) which are meant to enable slum dwellers to take on development processes themselves and produce sustainable and inclusive cities. These scope of work is centered around the following

• Community Savings and loan schemes

• Focus on Women

• Slum Upgrading and Incremental development of infrastructure and houses

• Government engagement and building Partnerships with the state and other agencies

• Peer learning through Community Exchanges

• Community-led data gathering through Enumerations and Mapping of slum settlements

Support

The Alliance of Dialogue on Shelter and the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation, thus, proposes the following initiative as part of bolstering the identified community's preventive capacities. The initiatives is improving Informal settlement hygienic conditions by carrying out the following activities;

• Installation of a solar powered water borehole to ease demand and improve accessibility of portable water

• Provide communities with tapped water buckets for washing hands

• Improve vending markets hygienic practices and adhere to social distance

• Assist households with sanitizing equipment

• Information dissemination on COVID 19

Other needs: Volunteers, Access to information

See more: https://dialogueonshelter.co.zw/approach/thematic-components.html

For more information contact covid19@unmgcy.org