FED.U.P (Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor)

The Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP) was officially launched in early 2006 but its roots go back to 1991 when a social movement was born as a result of an African People’s Dialogue on Land and Shelter.

FEDUP is the South African affiliate of Shack Dwellers International and is the primary support initiative for many urban poor movements in Africa. (see www.sdinet.org )

FEDUP mobilises urban poor communities through savings. It has over 700 affiliates in informal settlements and urban poor neighbourhoods in cities and towns in all nine provinces. FEDU has been able to secure tenure for more than 25,000 families and has facilitated the creation of grassroots housing associations that have constructed over 15,000 formal houses.

FEDUP seeks to engage state and private institutions in order to find people centred solutions to challenges of land tenure, infrastructure and housing. This strategy has paid dividends with the National Department of Housing having pledged an annual allocation of 6000 capital subsidies to the Federation. FEDUP also partners the National Ministry in a Joint Working Group that meets regularly to monitor the progress of this agreement. Housed in the office of the Director General, the experiences reported on by the Joint Working Group feed directly into National Housing Policy. This pledge from Government has a current value of US $35 million.

This national agreement is to be rolled out to the Provinces, where Provincial Task Teams will monitor progress on the ground and report to the national Joint Working group. FEDUP also has working arrangements and signed agreements with numerous local authorities, including the metropolitan councils of Ethekwini, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Ekhureleni.

FEDUP  is the primary stakeholder in uTshani Fund, an urban poor development fund with a capital value of $10 million. This is matched by Federation savings that presently stand at about $2 million.

FEDUP’s primary commitment as a national social movement is to work with other stakeholders to produce sustainable long term alternatives to evictions by transforming South Africa into a country in which all cities are physically, economically and politically inclusive of the urban poor.