OVERVIEW OF INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT IN WEST AFRICA (IWWA) by Ebere Akwuebu

1. OVERVIEW OF INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT IN WEST AFRICA (IWWA) by Ebere Akwuebu Environmental Law Research Institute (ELRI) Thursday 13th October, 2011

2. Project Background • Waste is a source of income for a large number of poor people in Africa • Subjected to hazardous environmental and health conditions; • Resource efficiency is very low; • Not able to fully amortize social and economic benefits because of informal nature of the waste sector; • Africa has become a major recipient of e-waste from Europe and Asia; • Obvious lack of the basics of a functional municipal waste management system is contributing greatly to perennial garbage problems: Thursday 13th October, 2011

3. Project Background contd. • Inefficient garbage collection; • Uncontrolled open burning; • Poor compliance to waste segregation; • Tolerated presence of open dumpsites; • Dismal law enforcement; • Lack of coordination among unit of the government; • Inefficient or non-existing recycling systems Thursday 13th October, 2011

4. Project Focus • The whole spectrum of municipal waste including streams of e-waste as interesting value driver within the waste management sector; • Bring together experts and stakeholders in the of solid waste management from the targeted African countries and Europe( promote international co-operation); • Establishment of a solid waste management research coordination platform and an expert network to identify a list of policy and technology options for the waste management sector in West Africa. Thursday 13th October, 2011

5. What is IWWA? • IWWA is an acronym for Integrated Waste Management in Western Africa. • It is funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme in response to the waste management problems in West Africa that are an impediment to sustainable development in the region. • The IWWA project has focused its activities on four countries – Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, chosen as a representative sample of western African countries. Thursday 13th October, 2011

6. Aim of IWWA • To promote international cooperation between research organisations, private industries, nongovernmental organisations in Europe and target African countries; • To empower of all stakeholders participating in the waste management chain. e.g. generators of waste, regulators and legislators, providers of services, informal sector, etc. • To reinforce of institutional and legal frameworks; • To encourage and facilitate open transfer of knowledge and technology. Thursday 13th October, 2011

7. Objectives of IWWA General Objectives: • To strengthen the institutional framework for Solid Waste Management and coordination at all levels; • Empowerment of authorities and relevant stakeholders (including private sector) for planning and management of solid waste; • Encouraging technology transfer, know-how and best practices; • Strengthening links among local authorities; • Promoting participation, public awareness and stakeholder involvement; • Strengthening of the legal framework of SWM in the targeted countries. Thursday 13th October, 2011

8. Specific Objectives • To collect and analyze relevant information that is required for proper Solid Waste Management planning and decision-making; • To identify the stakeholders and their strategies, their interaction and their contribution to the improvement of the solid waste management; • To identify policy and technology options for SWM adapted to the regional situation of the targeted countries; • To develop tools for implementation of adapted action plans and systems by the regional and national authorities; • To provide training for environmental specialists, increase the environmental awareness of the public and bring about effective public participation in Solid Waste Management. Thursday 13th October, 2011

9. Project Plan • The Integrated Waste West Africa Project (IWWA) commenced 1st June, 2010 • It is scheduled to run for 24 months • IWWA is focused on 4 target countries in West Africa namely: Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cote D’ivoire because the situation in these countries represent the waste situation in most West African countries. • The IWWA consortium is made up of 21partners from10 African and European Countries classified into three different expert groups Thursday 13th October, 2011

10. Project Plan contd. Members of the consortium will: • Analyze the current situation in the target countries, identifying main gaps and constraints of any type (i.e. technological, sociological, organizational, etc.) and selecting best practices and suitable management systems from European and non OECD countries. According to the results obtained, the project will provide valuable decision making tools that may be used in future implementation strategies: • Elaborate guidelines for identification of Integrated Waste Management Systems adaptable to target countries and at regional level. • Elaborate guidelines for implementation of Integrated Waste Management Systems. • Develop guidelines for implementation of policy strategies in Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM). • Recommendations for the development of National and Regional Action Plans in each targeted country Thursday 13th October, 2011

11. Project Work plan The Project is divided into 7 Work packages. • Work package 1 (WP1): Involves the standardization and harmonization of the tools that will be used in the following work packages. This includes evaluation of criteria of technological, social, legal and economic situation, the evaluation and classification of key stakeholders relevant activities etc • Work package 2 (WP2): Involves the ‘Analysis and Evaluation of current (waste management) situation in the target countries’. It will aim to recognize and characterize the waste management strategies in these target countries. • Work package 3 (WP3): Involves Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems and approaches. Here the information gathered from the previous WP will be taken into consideration in the definition of suitable Waste Management System (WMS). • Work package 4 (WP4): ‘Elaboration of Policy options and recommendations’ will merge the results obtained in previous work packages. Thursday 13th October, 2011

12. Project Work Plan contd. The outcome WPs 1,2 & 3 will be key to the implementation of the activities in WP 4 and involve the merging of all results from these WPs. 3 Reports will be prepared under WP • The elaboration of guidelines for the implementation of guidelines for the implementation of strategies in ISWM; • Guidelines for the implementation of policies in ISWM; and • Elaboration of policy briefs for the development of National & Regional Action Plans for ISWM in the target countries. The prescribed recommendations will intend to encourage the definition of objectives in the solution of SWM problem in Western Africa, as well as the identification of the resources and activities to achieve those objectives. Work package 5 (WP5): ‘Evaluation of the implication of proposed changes’ This is planned to assess the extent to which project’s activities will have positive impacts on the target countries of the project. Environmental and socio-economic effects of the measures proposed in previous work packages will be analyzed. This approach will help to attain IWWA expected outcomes. Thursday 13th October, 2011

13. Project Work Plan contd. Work package 6 (WP6): ‘Training and dissemination’ in order to reach relevant stakeholders and build capacities of decision makers in the developed tools. Two (2) category of workshops were scheduled under this workshop to be implemented across the target countries. • participatory workshops; and • capacity building workshops. WP 6 will also include Final Conference, participation in symposia and conference, dissemination leaflets and posters, or the project web site, will disseminate objectives and results of IWWA initiative. Work Package 7 (WP 7): Project Management This will involve overview of the entire Project and projections for the future Thursday 13th October, 2011

14. Expected Outcomes The tools to be developed in IWWA will empower stakeholders in two ways: • It provide technological and organizational solutions which can be adaptable according to country necessities. • It will set the basis of a legal framework which enables and promotes the implementation of improved and sustainable solid waste management systems. More so, through participatory workshops IWWA will involve all relevant stakeholders in the waste chain (including Community Based Organisations), ensuring that the solutions developed within the project framework are adapted to real necessities in target countries and Finally build the capacities of key stakeholders on the implementation of the strategies and decision making tools developed in IWWA. Thursday 13th October, 2011