Rose Molokoane

Rose Molokoane is a coordinator of the South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), and on the Management Committee of SDI. She has also served as co-chair of the Grassroots Constituency Group of the General Assembly of Partners throughout the Habitat III preparatory processes. She is a resident and member of the Oukasie savings scheme in a slum settlement outside Pretoria, South Africa. A veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, she is one of the most internationally recognized grassroots activists involved in land tenure and housing issues. FEDUP has helped more than 150,000 squatters, the vast majority of whom are women, to pool their savings. This has won them sufficient standing to negotiate with government for a progressive housing policy that has already produced 15,000 new homes and secured more than 1,000 hectares of government land for development. Molokoane has initiated federations of savings schemes throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She was awarded the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor in 2005 for her struggle to bring land and homes to the poor.