ABSTRACT
The “Women-led Resilience Building of Urban Poor in South Asia” project was developed by Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) and its partners as a part of the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) challenge. The project aimed to build the resilience capacities of 25000 low income families living in slums/informal settlements in seven cities of South Asia, to take the lead in action against four climate risks. These four climate stressors (a) heat waves; (b) flooding and inundation; (c) water scarcity; and (d) increased climate change-related incidence of water and vector borne diseases; are slower-onset and less apparent, often impacting the poor most but attract less attention compared to disasters and extreme events. The project worked to create an integrated model wherein women take a lead through collective action and technology incubation, to devise locally relevant pro-poor and gender sensitive climate resilient solutions and promote a culture of sustainable development and resilience among the urban poor in South Asia.
One of the key components of the project was use of technologies to promote resilience among poor communities. An innovative approach for technology transfer/adaptation was developed in this project wherein the implementing organisation (Mahila Housing Trust), poor communities, private sector technology partners and financial institutions worked in a collaborative way leading to acceptance and replication of new technological solutions by poor.
Mahila Housing Trust facilitated demonstration of product/service of innovative entrepreneurs and businesses in the slums. As a result, entrepreneurs and business got an entry into the communities and a space to show case their product. Various technologies were tested in slums areas where in slum dwellers can see, feel and experience the benefit of the technology over a duration of 6 months to 1 years. Based on their experience, slum dwellers provided feedback to MHT regarding what needs to be improved in a particular technology to make it more acceptable for poor. MHT shared those feedbacks with entrepreneurs who then made agreed upon modifications and made renewed technological product available for poor community. MHT’s interest was mainly to explore multiple solutions to the various problems to be able to support the communities to select the most efficient and cost-effective solution. The idea was to create a basket of choices for the community to choose from based on their needs, aspirations and financial status. During the project a range of such partners dealing with improved roofing solutions, water purification products, composting technologies, building technologies, etc. was explored. Key to success was facilitating interactions between communities and technical experts so that both parties communicate clearly and develop mutually agreeable solutions to resilience problems.
The paper presentation will cover the technology transfer mechanism and key learning emerging from the mix method (quantitative & qualitative) study that was conducted on completion of this project. The findings will highlight key barrier to adaptation of technological solutions by poor and mechanism to address it.
