Under the Haiti Rebati Fund, financed by the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), DIG has fully disbursed the USD 8 million in committed loan funds to SOFIHDES ( Société Financière Haïtienne de Développement S.A.). Throughout 2020, DIG has worked with SOFIHDES to ensure that the Rebati portfolio remains in good standing and viable amidst the introduction of COVID-19, political strife, and economic instability in Haiti.
More than 200,500 informal settlers in Zimbabwe are benefiting from the USAID-funded Accountable Democratic Action (ADA) Through Social Cohesion Program. A fourth of Zimbabwe’s urban population lives in urban and peri-urban informal settlements, but these settlements are not recognized by central and local government authorities and are often subject to arbitrary evictions and demolitions. DIG, in close collaboration with its local partner and sub-awardee, Dialogue on Shelter Trust, is currently implementing the three-year USAID-funded Accountable Democratic Action (ADA) Through Social Cohesion Program to equip the urban poor with the knowledge and tools to address shelter-related human rights violations. The ADA Program empowers citizens living in informal settlements in five local authority areas across Zimbabwe (Bulawayo, Epworth, Harare, Kadoma, and Masvingo) to increase local and national decision-makers’ accountability regarding constitutional provisions that protect the urban poor’s rights to shelter and basic services. The program focuses on increasing informal settlers’ understanding of their constitutional rights. Furthermore, through the establishment of anti-eviction solidarity groups, the program is building the capacity of residents, particularly women, to work with national and local-level stakeholders to negotiate land tenure, infrastructure, and housing and livelihood solutions.