This Handbook on Sustainability and Risk Management is intended to help microfinance institutions by suggesting a practical approach for improving their performance. Eleven practical Tools form the core of this handbook. Each Tool is clarified and summarised in separate paragraphs. There are five Tools for different aspects of Sustainability Management, and six Tools for Risk Management. The tools have been developed to strengthen risk management and sustainability management at a range of microfinance institutions. The approach draws upon mainstream banking guidelines (such as Basel II) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), but is adapted to meet the needs of smaller institutions.

This publication reflects on promising practices that have emerged through the work of the Tenure Security Facility Southern Africa (TSFSA), funded by the Cities Alliance and UKaid. and which signal new approaches to securing tenure in informal settlements. It is intended to provide guidance to practitioners, officials and communities who are involved in informal settlement upgrading and who see the value of finding more routes into tenure security than the dominance of an ownership paradigm currently allows.

The project operated in six sites in Southern Africa with different partners:
•  Angola: Development Workshop, an NGO based in Luanda
•  Mozambique:  Associação Nacional dos Municípios de Moçambique
(ANAMM) (the national association of municipalities) and the Cities
Alliance Country Programme
•  eMalahleni, South Africa: Planact, an NGO working with the
Springvalley community
•  Cape Town, South Africa: Sun Development Services, an NGO that has
been providing development support in Monwabisi Park
•  Johannesburg, South Africa: Urban LandMark has provided support
over several years to the city’s Regularisation programme
•  Malawi: CCODE, an NGO based in Lilongwe that works to improve the
quality of life of the poor.

The case study demonstrates the gaining administrative recognition for local land management practices. The growing land market in Huambo City, along with weak and unenforceable land legislation, fostered the development of local practices in land management, often incorporating customary practices, like the traditional chief (soba) witnessing and the neighborhood bairro-level representatives approving transactions. The majority of urban residents purchased or acquired their land through some locally legitimate mechanism and most have documents to prove it. In response, the municipal authorities chose to recognise these mechanisms, thereby acknowledging and working with existing and management practices.