Muungano Support Trust

About MuST Kenya

Muungano wa Wanavijiji

Muungano wa Wanavijiji, is a nationwide federation of the urban poor that seeks to improve the quality of life of its members through an extensive process of policy advocacy and dialogue with government (both central and local), civil society and International organization and Communities .By and large, the federation proactively engages its members in savings schemes, advocacy on land regularization, shelter and policy formulation for purposes of building strong relationships between institutional programmes and communities of target settlements.

 The secretariat -Muungano Support Trust

Muungano Support Trust serves as Secretariat to the Federation of Slum Dwellers in Kenya (Muungano wa Wanavijiji). The Secretariat innovates for social transformation through Competitive organizing of Informal settlements, which involves inventory and settlement profiling, mapping and enumeration, community planning that enables communities take charge of their aspiration concerning their settlements, and project Innovation. The secretariat prides itself by successfully innovating products and projects that have been subsequently scaled up in selected areas. The Secretariat‘s implementation collaborators are local governments in the various counties, Local and International Universities in Urban Planning, Government ministries and the United Nations.

Notably, MuST is in the business of innovating for social transformation through competitive organizing, community planning and project innovation. As an organ of the federation, MuST prides itself as a “House of Innovations” where the successfully innovated products and projects find unmatched replication in selected areas on a magnified scale.

Muungano Vision

"…Cities where the poor live in dignity, meeting basic needs at scale" This vision is about liberating the urban poor from the "…poverty of dignity". But it also emphasizes on the importance of achieving "…little things at scale”.

MuST Mission

"…To innovate for social transformation in competitive organizing, community planning and project financing".

Our work

MuST advocates for full community participation, as recipe for a successful urban development in informal areas. In addition, community ownership and appropriation of essential functions in the planning and implementation phases has the potential to transcend upgrading paradigms of providing essential services and alleviating urban poverty; it also deepens democratic engagement and enhances local capacities.

Experience has shown that community buy-in — the “demand side” of the policy framework equation — is the essential ingredient to a successful implementation. Any city official in most participating municipalities can recount stories of attempted provision of services or other attempts at upgrading that resulted in vandalism, destruction, and antagonism by the communities such projects were intended to help.

Currently the Alliance’s work is geared towards mobilizing communities to engage government around security of tenure and better service delivery, which are core elements of the informal settlement upgrading paradigm.

Based on the phenomena of sustainability MuST strives to secure project-linked income generation and job opportunities for its members and participants. There are also a number of value-added livelihoods interventions across the country.