Waste to Wealth Uganda

Living Earth Foundation has launched a multi-country ‘Waste to Wealth’ project, which responds to the urgent need to improve the lives of the increasing number of improvised and vulnerable people residing in urban slums in sub-Saharan Africa. This project has been implemented by Living Earth Foundation and its local partners in Kampala Uganda, as well as Port Harcourt (Nigeria) and Douala (Cameroon). In Uganda this project is built upon the foundations of the 2009 Enhancing Plastic Waste Collection in Kampala District project.

Project Aim:

The project aims to create a virtuous circle wherein slum dwellers take responsibility for collecting and managing household solid waste. Instead of shipping this waste off to landfill social ventures and micro-enterprises oversee a process of sorting of waste, recycling and re-use. The project’s objective is to result in sustained environmental sanitation improvement, with subsequent benefits in health and well being for the slum inhabitants. As well as environmental benefits the project will foster the emergence of a skilled and effective business sector wherein social enterprises, founded by and in poor urban communities, derive wealth from the provision of environmental services and derivative recycling and re-use activities. The waste therefore becomes the catalyst for income generation and employment creation. Examples of the benefits of Waste to Wealth schemes in Uganda, as well as its rational, can be viewed in the video below:

Project Background:

In 2008 Living Earth Uganda carried out a baseline survey in order to record and assess current practices with regard to waste plastic management and to identify key areas for development. This baseline survey was completed in December 2008 and its conclusions show a poor level of waste management in Kampala. However there was a positive response amongst local communities and local leaders who showed themselves eager to learn and to overcome the challenges created by the lack of a structured waste management system.

In order to tackle poor levels of awareness regarding the social and environmental dangers of plastic dumping and the lack of recycling facilities LEU fostered a number of community based plastic collection businesses and established partnerships between local communities and plastic recycling industries.

Widespread interest in the project and increasing levels of the urban slum population encouraged further fostering of schemes that simultaneously tackle poor solid waste management and widespread poverty.

Expected Results:

  1. Sustained environmental sanitation improvement, with subsequent benefits in health and well-being for the inhabitants of urban slums, through improved service provision as a result of partnerships involving local governments, the private sector and civil society.
  2. The emergence of a skilled and effective business sector wherein social enterprises, founded by and in poor urban communities, derive wealth from the provision of  recycling and re-use services. The role of women in the sector will be promoted.
  3. Improved awareness among all stakeholders, including policy-makers, of the rights and entitlement of poor urban dwellers to a clean environment and of the potential to harness local cost-effective resources to deliver these rights.
  4. Enhanced capacity among local authorities to engage in public-private partnership (PPP) development, particularly involving the less formal private sector. Strengthening managerial, technical and organisational abilities of municipalities and addressing statutory limitations will play a key part in achieving this result.
  5. Improved South-South linkages and networking between partners and associates to increase learning, information dissemination, consensus building and advocacy skills with which to influence policy makers.
  6. Scaling up of the approach and methodology to other urban centres within the three target countries.

Project Activities

  • Support micro-projects delivering environmental sanitation services to poor urban residents, implemented by social venture groups and micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in partnership with local authorities
  • Build capacity among micro and small enterprises run by poor urban slum dwellers
  • Provide business training to poor urban entrepreneurs
  • Provide functional livelihoods skills training to urban slum dwellers
  • Raise awareness of rights to a clean environment among slum dwellers
  • Support residents’ and vulnerable people’s groups to advocate for rights to a clean urban environment
  • Provide advocacy training and support to urban community leaders
  • Ensure available information resources on urban environmental rights to slum dwellers
  • Partnership training delivered to local authority officials
  • Capacity building in project management for councils addressing urban slum problems
  • South-south dialogue (between Nigeria, Cameroon and Uganda) and information sharing facilitated
  • Networking platforms for cross-fertilisation and exchange established
  • 9 seminars on urban environment and poverty held in the three target countries
  • 3 National conferences on the urban environment held
  • Publication of Public-Private Partnerships toolkits and awareness raising materials

Project funding:

The European Commission has committed €1.5 million funding to the project in all three countries. Further co-financing is required and funds are being sought.

EC logo

Latest news