The lack of government support for poor communities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil encouraged those communities to mobilize their own resources. People in the communities decided to come together and start saving money. This community savings was used for initiatives like housing, education, and livelihood programs. The Asian Coalition for Community Action (ACCA) Program provided additional support for community-managed projects. Through their initiatives, the communities demonstrated their abilities and changed perceptions of them, attracting further support from governments and other organizations.

1. Community Resource Mobilization:
Poor people investing in themselves for better
communities
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 16, 2012

2. The absence or lack of government support
encouraged communities to mobilize their own
resources

3. Realizing the need to address issues the people
decided to get together and started to save

4. Community
savings are for
community needs
such as land and
housing, education,
livelihood

5. The Asian
Coalition for
Community
Action (ACCA)
Program provided
further support to
community-managed
initiatives

6. ACCA became a
tool that encouraged
other stakeholders
such as the
government to
extend their support
to and work with
communities

7. Community initiatives helped change the mindset of
government about the poor, that they are not just recipients
but active partners in development

8. It also helped promote
the efficient use of
government funds and
gave communities the
opportunity to influence
policies through
agreements to sustain
their initiatives

9. The ACCA and UPFI
opened doors for
students and
professionals to
volunteer and work with
communities in
implementing
Upgrading and housing
initiatives

10. Lack of support from government gave poor communities
the opportunity to rely on each other…but their capacity
attracted cooperation from public and private sector

11. ACCA and UPFI gave poor people the space to
plan, design, implement and manage their own
big and small upgrading projects

12. Community
members manage
community-upgrading
finances
through systems
they themselves
create

13. Community management of
city funds develop capacities
of community members in
accounting, recording,
monitoring of community
project implementation,
project documentation and
financial management, and
collection strategies for loan
repayments

14. Regular learning exchanges and assessments helped convince
other communities to start saving and treat ACCA support
as loans, not grants

15. For 3 years now, poor people in 130 cities in 16 countries in Asia
have been leading and managing the upgrading of communities
through ACCA

16. To reach out to more people and to make bigger change, poor
people implementing ACCA came together to build a regional
platform of poor communities called the Urban Poor Coalition
Asia (UPCA)

17. The communities also established the UPCA Revolving Fund to
support and strengthen ACCA initiatives, mobilize more
community savings, and serve as leverage for more external
support

18. The UPCA Revolving Fund encourages the setting-up of more
Community Fund Networks and strengthen City Development
Funds that poor people can access to support their initiatives

19. Way Forward
“UPCA gives poor people the space to plan projects, administer
funds and implement community initiatives. While they may
commit mistakes in the process, they become responsible for
their own development. Allowing poor people to manage their
own affairs ensures the attainment of genuine change from the
ground as well as speeds up the process of finding solutions to
issues poor people face.”

20. Thank You!