Support to the formalization of small economic units and workers in the waste management value chain within the Waterberg District.

Project details

Duration

1 June 2024 - 31 August 2025

Development partner(s)

RBSA

Reference

ZAF/24/01/RBS

Location

South Africa

Contact

Cebisile Nyambe, National Project Coordinator, [email protected]

Additional details

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The RBSA intervention aligns to one of the key priorities of the SA DWCP and the UNSDCF that seek to improve labour market interventions and policies to create more and better jobs (particularly for youth, women, and persons with disability) and to promote Inclusive, Just and Sustainable Economic Growth, respectively. It also aligns to the Limpopo Development Plan 2020-2025 to create decent employment through inclusive economic growth and sustainable livelihoods; Chapter 5 of the NDP that sees the emergence of SMEs in areas such as waste management as contributing to reducing unemployment, poverty, and income inequality.

The proposal builds on a diagnostic study on solid waste management in Waterberg, commissioned by the ILO in 2023 to explore the potential for establishing waste management enterprises and sustainable livelihoods in the circular economy. The diagnostic report revealed potential for job creation and sustainable livelihoods in the circular economy and a discussion was held with the local authorities on specific ‘waste’ sectors of primary importance such as organic waste, local organic farming, recycling of tyres and mining industrial waste towards reusable products.

Strategic Focus

Improve waste management by applying the concept of a circular economy. The idea is to reduce the volume of “waste” ending up in landfill sites, and mining waste piles, through the upcycling and recycling of waste e.g., used tyres, organic waste, and industrial waste from Coal Fired Power Stations (Fly Ash) for the production and sale of new products.
To enhance the formalization of informal “waste workers”, the waste pickers and spur the enterprise formalization ecosystem in waste management.

Strengthening the enterprise formalization ecosystem will entail strengthening coordination and synergies among actors in the enterprise formalization ecosystem and promoting an institutional coordination mechanism to facilitate transition to the formal economy; working with the local municipal actors, existing agencies, potential business development service providers and training institutions to strengthen their capacity to provide green entrepreneurship support services, and skills for generating circular economy business models.