In 1987, World Development published a supplement entitled `Development Alternatives: the Challenge of NGOs`. Although this challenge now seems far more complicated, this paper suggests one way of giving meaning (and possibility) back to the juxtaposition of `development alternative` and NGOs....

This paper considers the experience of the membership organizations that make up the international network of Shack or Slum Dwellers International (SDI,3 an international network of national urban poor Federations and their support NGOs.