Africa Waste Webinar Series – Towards clean, healthy and circular cities in Africa – Webinar #2 COVID Waste: What Additional Challenge was Imposed on African Cities

Africa’s urbanization rate is 3.5%, the highest in the world. Due to the rapid urbanization in recent years, municipal solid waste management has become a big challenge for many cities, as lower-income cities in Africa are expected to double their municipal solid waste generation within the next 15-20 years. 

UN-Habitat, with different partners, is working to address this ever-increasing waste issue in the urbanizing continent.

One of them is the African Clean Cities Platform (ACCP), which was established in 2017 in Maputo, Mozambique, with 24 African countries representative together with the Ministry of Environment of Japan (MoEJ), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the City of Yokohama, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) with the aim of sharing knowledge and good practice and promoting investment in waste management to realize clean cities in Africa by 2030.

UN-Habitat, with support from The United Nations for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), is implementing a project in Sierra Leone, South-South Cooperation in Sustainable Waste Management – Waste Wise Koidu, supported by the Government of China, facilitating city-to-city knowledge, experience exchanges and partnerships brokering through the form of south-south and triangular collaboration.

With the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA), UN-Habitat is providing capacity development training on waste and energy in the Covid-19 recovery context for Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Kenya promoting city-to-city cooperation and knowledge sharing around municipal solid waste management to mitigate climate change.

As a part of a joint effort of various initiatives above, the Africa Waste Webinar Series aim to share knowledge and experiences to tackle common challenges in solid waste management observed in the continent so that the member countries and cities can interactively learn solutions for improved solid waste management and shift towards urban circular economy. The webinar series consists of below five webinars:

  1. How to Improve Waste Collection Rate in African Cities?
  2. Covid Waste Management in Africa
  3. How to Turn Open Dumpsites to Controlled Waste Disposal Facility in African Cities?
  4. Waste and climate change – Appropriate technologies and good practices in Africa
  5. Plastic pollution from waste – How to “stop the tap” of plastic leakage in African cities?

Webinar #2 - COVID Waste: What Additional Challenge was Imposed on African Cities
24 February 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed additional burden to African cities who are already overwhelmed by the rapidly increasing amount of solid waste to manage.  The pandemic has resulted in increased amount of mixed waste, including infectious waste and plastic waste. The second webinar addresses the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare waste and introduces relevant technologies to deal with such waste through UNEP’s Compendium of Technologies for Treatment/Destruction of Healthcare Waste.

Recording - English

Recording - French

Presentations

Jorge Emmanuel

Philippines

Gladys Ngeno

Kenya

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Africa Waste Webinar Series – Towards clean, healthy and circular cities in Africa – Webinar #2 COVID Waste: What Additional Challenge was Imposed on African Cities

Africa’s urbanization rate is 3.5%, the highest in the world. Due to the rapid urbanization in recent years, municipal solid waste management has become a big challenge for many cities, as lower-income cities in Africa are expected to double their municipal solid waste generation within the next 15-20 years. 

UN-Habitat, with different partners, is working to address this ever-increasing waste issue in the urbanizing continent.

One of them is the African Clean Cities Platform (ACCP), which was established in 2017 in Maputo, Mozambique, with 24 African countries representative together with the Ministry of Environment of Japan (MoEJ), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the City of Yokohama, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) with the aim of sharing knowledge and good practice and promoting investment in waste management to realize clean cities in Africa by 2030.

UN-Habitat, with support from The United Nations for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), is implementing a project in Sierra Leone, South-South Cooperation in Sustainable Waste Management – Waste Wise Koidu, supported by the Government of China, facilitating city-to-city knowledge, experience exchanges and partnerships brokering through the form of south-south and triangular collaboration.

With the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA), UN-Habitat is providing capacity development training on waste and energy in the Covid-19 recovery context for Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Kenya promoting city-to-city cooperation and knowledge sharing around municipal solid waste management to mitigate climate change.

As a part of a joint effort of various initiatives above, the Africa Waste Webinar Series aim to share knowledge and experiences to tackle common challenges in solid waste management observed in the continent so that the member countries and cities can interactively learn solutions for improved solid waste management and shift towards urban circular economy. The webinar series consists of below five webinars:

  1. How to Improve Waste Collection Rate in African Cities?
  2. Covid Waste Management in Africa
  3. How to Turn Open Dumpsites to Controlled Waste Disposal Facility in African Cities?
  4. Waste and climate change – Appropriate technologies and good practices in Africa
  5. Plastic pollution from waste – How to “stop the tap” of plastic leakage in African cities?

Webinar #2 - COVID Waste: What Additional Challenge was Imposed on African Cities
24 February 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed additional burden to African cities who are already overwhelmed by the rapidly increasing amount of solid waste to manage.  The pandemic has resulted in increased amount of mixed waste, including infectious waste and plastic waste. The second webinar addresses the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare waste and introduces relevant technologies to deal with such waste through UNEP’s Compendium of Technologies for Treatment/Destruction of Healthcare Waste.

Recording - English

Recording - French

Presentations

Jorge Emmanuel

Philippines

Gladys Ngeno

Kenya

Download
Download

Africa Waste Webinar Series – Towards clean, healthy and circular cities in Africa – Webinar #1 – Waste Collection: How to Improve Waste Collection Rate in African Cities?

Africa’s urbanization rate is 3.5%, the highest in the world. Due to the rapid urbanization in recent years, municipal solid waste management has become a big challenge for many cities, as lower-income cities in Africa are expected to double their municipal solid waste generation within the next 15-20 years. 

UN-Habitat, with different partners, is working to address this ever-increasing waste issue in the urbanizing continent.

One of them is the African Clean Cities Platform (ACCP), which was established in 2017 in Maputo, Mozambique, with 24 African countries representative together with the Ministry of Environment of Japan (MoEJ), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the City of Yokohama, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) with the aim of sharing knowledge and good practice and promoting investment in waste management to realize clean cities in Africa by 2030.

UN-Habitat, with support from The United Nations for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), is implementing a project in Sierra Leone, South-South Cooperation in Sustainable Waste Management – Waste Wise Koidu, supported by the Government of China, facilitating city-to-city knowledge, experience exchanges and partnerships brokering through the form of south-south and triangular collaboration.

With the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA), UN-Habitat is providing capacity development training on waste and energy in the Covid-19 recovery context for Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Kenya promoting city-to-city cooperation and knowledge sharing around municipal solid waste management to mitigate climate change.

As a part of a joint effort of various initiatives above, the Africa Waste Webinar Series aim to share knowledge and experiences to tackle common challenges in solid waste management observed in the continent so that the member countries and cities can interactively learn solutions for improved solid waste management and shift towards urban circular economy. The webinar series consists of below five webinars.

  1. How to Improve Waste Collection Rate in African Cities?
  2. Covid Waste Management in Africa
  3. How to Turn Open Dumpsites to Controlled Waste Disposal Facility in African Cities?
  4. Waste and climate change – Appropriate technologies and good practices in Africa
  5. Plastic pollution from waste – How to “stop the tap” of plastic leakage in African cities?

Webinar #1 - Waste Collection: How to Improve Waste Collection Rate in African Cities?
31 January 2022

The first webinar addressed the issue of waste collection – many cities in Africa struggles to achieve high waste collection rate. UN-Habitat studies on Waste Wise Cities Tool so far have found that waste collection rate in Sub-Saharan African cities ranges from 7% to 60%, observing huge amount of uncollected waste becomes a public health concern. The first webinar invited founder of Mr. Paulin Buregeya, Chief Executive Officer of COPED Ltd (Compagnie pour l’Environnement et Développement au Rwanda), to speak Kigali’s experience to improve waste collection rate to more than 80%. The another speaker is from Bukavu City DRC Mr. Francis Sawanga, the ACCP focal person from the city. Bukavu City applied Waste Wise Cities Tool in 2021 and the survey results showed 7% of waste collection rate. The session explored how African cities can improve the waste collection coverage, through presentations and dialogue between prominent speakers.

Recording

Presentations

Paulin Buregeya

Kigali, Rwanda

 

François Venance Alwende

Bukavu, DRC

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E-Scooters, Challenges and Opportunities of New Mobility Modes

New mobility modes, such as e-scooters, have expanded very fast in cities in developed and developing countries. These new mobility modes pose both opportunities and challenges for sustainable urban mobility that need to be addressed in a way that supports innovative approaches, provides flexibility and adapts quickly to the changing environments and industries. At the same time, the regulations need to ensure that their use compromises neither safety nor public space. 

In this context, the Urban Pathways Project put together a webinar, intended for city-level officials and technical staff, where representatives from European and Latin American municipalities, e-scooters operators, as well as from research institutions shared their views and experience on how to regulate these new modes in an effective manner. The webinar counted on the inputs of:

  • Alvin Mejía (@cityemissions), Research Fellow at the Mobility and International Cooperation Unit of the Wuppertal Institute
  • Stephen Perkins (@ITF_Forum), Head of the International Transport Forum (ITF) Research Centre
  • Diego Assunção (@OficialBHTRANS), Project Management Analyst at the Transport Company of Belo Horizonte (BHTRANS) 
  • Emma Silver (@emmaboon), Government Partnerships at BIRD
  • Matthias Van Wijnendaele (@mvwn), Cycling policy advisor to the Mobility Minister of the Brussels Region 

One of the main concerns about e-scooters is that they might compete with active mobility alternatives, i.e. walking and cycling. However, the data presented in the webinar showed that despite some modal shift in that direction, there are a considerable number of trips (about 30% in selected US cities) done by e-scooters that have replaced car or taxi trips. Regarding the safety and public space concerns, the speakers agreed on the need of a licensing system with clear rules for the operators (e.g. parking zones, speed limit, insurance, etc.), but most of all on the need of reallocating public space to alternative and low-carbon mobility modes.

See all the presentations here.