 IIED is researching solutions for getting climate finance to the local level. We are developing good practice case studies with a focus on funds that promote access and rights to land, natural resources and basic services, that support local climate action and that demonstrate innovative ways of building trust between funders and local intermediaries and communities. This case study looks at how the Gangano Urban Poor Fund supports community led slum upgrading processes in Zimbabwe through a network of community based savings groups and how it engages with central and local government to upgrade informal settlements. The Gangano Fund was set up by the Zimbabwe Homeless Peoples Federation, an organization which brings together more than 500 community savings schemes in low income urban areas. The savings schemes are organized around women led daily and or weekly meetings. These regular savings meetings are the only means by which many members can access loans and save for the future. They build trust and bind communities together and provide a space for communities to articulate and prioritize their housing and basic service needs. The Zimbabwe Homeless Peoples Federation collects the savings and makes contributions into the Gangano Fund. The fund aggregates community savings and blends these with international donors such as SELA VIP, a Latin American, African and Asian social housing service and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It also augments its capital base by leveraging financial, material, human and technical resources from government and the private sector. The Zimbabwe Homeless Peoples Federation manages the Gangano Fund with the backing of Dialogue on Shelter for the Homeless in Zimbabwe Trust, DOS, an NGO that provides technical and financial managing support for upgrading housing. The fund works to secure land tenure, build low income housing and make incremental improvements to services such as drainage and sanitation. It provides loans for individual housing improvements to groups of individuals organized into solidarity loan groups, which guarantee the loan, mitigating risk. Loan beneficiaries are expected to repay within a specified period and at an agreed and affordable interest rate. The loans, which are separate from savings, are paid back to Gangano so that the money can benefit other members. Valued at around one million American dollars, the fund provides a platform for communities to engage with local government and donors and the Zimbabwe Homeless Peoples Federation have moved from providing loans to poor households to engaging directly with local and national government. For example, Zimbabwe's national housing policy recognizes incremental approaches to slum upgrading as a pro-poor service delivery strategy because of ZHPF's work. ZHPF, DOS and the city government have established city funds as financial vehicles for driving city-wide upgrading projects. ZHPF and DOS support poor communities to demonstrate that they have the capacity to sustainably participate in planning and implementing projects. The city funds work keeps resident communities actively involved in projects. They feature inclusive planning and governance arrangements whereby local communities and city government make decisions and work together towards incrementally improving and upgrading informal and poor urban settlements. Although climate adaptation was not one of the fund's original aims, funded projects have contributed to the climate resilience of people living in Zimbabwe's informal settlements. Upgrading work has delivered implicit adaptation, for example by installing dry toilets in areas prone to flooding, fitting solar energy systems and carrying out household repairs after extreme weather events.