The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC)

SPARC is one of the largest Indian NGOs working on housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor. SPARC's philosophy is that if solutions can be developed that work for the poorest and most marginalised in the city, then these solutions can be scaled up to work for other groups of the urban poor across the country and internationally.

SPARC's core activities include:

• establishing community centres
• encouraging the use of savings and credit programmes
• building capacity to enable people to negotiate with local authorities from an informed position
• facilitating peer exchanges
• showcasing affordable housing and sanitation solutions to government authorities and local populations
• demonstrating housing and infrastructure models that work for the poor as well as the city and can be scaled up substantially
• advocating for pro-poor policy change.