Democratic Governance and Urban Development Project

Municipal Waste Recycling Program (MWRP)

The Municipal Waste Recycling Program (MWRP) was a $14 million, five-year, USAID-funded program to address the global problem of ocean plastic pollution, with a focus on four Asian countries seeking to improve municipal waste management. Funded under the Making Cities Work IDIQ, MWRP provided grants of up to $250,000 and technical assistance to support promising municipal waste recycling initiatives in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, evaluated the effectiveness of those initiatives, and made recommendations to USAID for future investments in the sector.

Accountable Democratic Action (ADA) through Social Cohesion

The USAID-funded ADA Program focused on creating social cohesion by informing citizens living in informal settlements of their constitutional rights to housing and basic services. DIG worked with approximately 200,000 residents of 35 informal settlements across Zimbabwe (Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Kadoma, and Epworth). Collaborating with Dialogue on Shelter, a Slum Dwellers International affiliate, the ADA program team successfully mobilized slum dwellers into 100+ women-led solidarity groups. This allowed them to peacefully engage with government authorities and advocate to protect their rights. Local and national decision-makers’ increased accountability regarding constitutional provisions protected the urban poor’s rights to shelter and basic services.

ECAP I & II – Emergency Capacity Assistance Program

The Emergency Capacity Assistance Program (ECAP) provided technical assistance to local government agencies and other stakeholders tasked with overseeing Haiti’s post-earthquake shelter and settlement activities.

Urbis – Urban Capacity Learning Laboratory

The focus of the Urbis program included slum improvement, provision of basic services (water and sanitation), land tenure regularization, and financing for the urban poor, with advocacy as a cross-cutting theme.

Liberia Collaborative Support for Health Systems Strengthening

Under USAID’s Collaborative Support for Health (CSH) Systems Strengthening program in Liberia, DIG provided direct support to Liberia’s Ministry of Public Works (MPW) to strengthen the Ministry’s capacity to manage water supply infrastructure improvements and deliver technical assistance to help achieve the goal of USAID’s CSH Program: improve the health status of Liberians.

Southern Agriculture and Business Recovery (SABR)

In the aftermath of the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the USAID-financed livelihoods recovery SABR program was launched in response to the immediate needs of the heavily damaged agriculture sector – the key source of employment and productivity in southern Lebanon.

Urban Advisory Program

DIG is helping the foundation identify cities that provide opportunities in the following investment areas: municipal finance, payment systems for basic services, metafinance, and city planning.

Dakar Municipal Finance Program

The city of Dakar, Senegal, hired DIG to help it launch its first municipal bond. DIG is providing technical and monitoring assistance to the municipality, which expects to raise a maximum of USD 40 million through a five-year bond scheduled to be offered in 2015.