In the mid 1980’s, World Vision International decided to experiment with building the power of the world’s urban poor through an experimental project it named the “Urban Advance”. From 1985 through 1997, Urban Advance organized the poor in slums and squatter settlements in Asian, African and Latin American cities. Eventually, Urban Advance community organizations were developed in the three largest cities in Bangladesh, two in Brazil, one each in Colombia and Ethiopia, four in India, eight in Indonesia, two in Kenya, one each in Lesotho, Malawi and Mauritania, two in Mexico, three in the Philippines, two in Taiwan, one each in Uganda and Zambia and two in Zimbabwe.
The organizing in these 35 urban slums and squatter settlements developed the people’s capacities and abilities to use power relationally. In Madras (now Chennai), India, poor people successfully negotiated with the government to build over 6,000 homes and deed land to the poor. Within the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, the people organized 52 businesses (some hiring hundreds of people). In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the poor created and pressed through legislation to protect the rights of children and the homeless. In many other cities, the people identified core community values, strong local leaders were developed and slum infrastructure was rebuilt.
The evaluation department of World Vision conducted an extensive evaluation of four major Urban Advance projects, Bangladesh, Brazil, India and Kenya. The department was a body totally independent of the Urban Advance. These evaluations were joined by less intensive audits of each of its other projects. They all chronicled the effectiveness of the Urban Advance in building the power of the urban poor, the escape of thousands of people from extreme poverty, and the building of common understandings and values to sustain these communities. The leadership of World Vision has acknowledged that the Urban Advance was the most successful innovation it had ever operated.
Today, Millennium Tools is an independent initiative dedicated to collaborating with interested groups throughout the Global South committed to applying best practices of community organizing.
