The Work of SPARC, the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan

This document is one of ten case studies that were part of an IIED research program on Urban Poverty Reduction Programmes: Lessons of Experience. The study describes the work of an Indian NGO, Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), and its alliance with the women's cooperatives formed by pavement dwellers and the National Slum Dwellers Federation.

The document further:

• Summarizes the history of SPARC from its early work to its present status;
• Outlines the roles and relationships between the NGO and the people's organizations;
• Analyzes some of the reasons that account for the success of the alliance and lists down the benefits accrued from it;
• Looks in more depth at how the creation of options changes the nature of participation from a passive to an active process;
• Examines the effectiveness with which development assistance funds have been invested in this process;
• Discusses how the approaches developed by SPARC and its partners differ from those of most development agencies.

The paper finally concludes that:

• The solutions that best serve the urban poor usually emerge from their initiatives and their learning, and community exchanges;
• The urban poor are no longer isolated; they work in groups or federations to address needs that cannot be resolved at the level of their settlement;
• A movement rooted in a multiplicity of group savings schemes cannot be easily co-opted or destabilized by government promises or self-interested leaders;
• The poor are not beneficiaries as they can articulate their demands and show their solutions;
• Poverty reduction requires more than an official recognition of the poor's needs.