The e-waste Africa programme is a comprehensive programme aiming to enhance the environmental governance of e-wastes and to create favorable social and economic conditions for partnerships and small businesses in the recycling sector in Africa.
The initial phase of the programme consists of the E-waste Africa project and complementary activities triggered by the project and implemented by partner organizations. Following completion of the E-waste Africa project, follow-up activities are expected to be carried out supporting countries in the region to tackle e-waste issues.
Timeframe: November 2008 to March 2012 (extended until June 2012)
Overall coordination: Secretariat of the Basel Convention
Implementing organizations: the Basel Convention Coordinating Centre based in Nigeria, the Basel Convention Regional Centre based in Senegal, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), the Institute for Applied Ecology (the Oko-Institut), the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL), in cooperation with the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment (PACE)
Financial support: European Commission, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the Dutch Recyclers Association (NVMP).
Project objectives
The project goal is to enhance the capacity of West Africa and other African countries to tackle the growing problem of e-waste. Specifically, the project aims to:
- Improve the level of information on flows of e-products and e-waste imported to West African countries and other African countries to enhance decision-making;
- Increase the capacity of partner countries to manage end-of-life e-equipment and e-waste at the national level;
- Investigate the feasibility of establishing environmentally sound materials recovery operations;
- Enhance the capacity to monitor and control transboundary movements of e-waste and to prevent illegal traffic.
Pan-African Forum on Africa
The project was completed with the first ever multi-stakeholder Forum to discuss e-waste issues in Africa. The Pan-African Forum on E-waste was organized by the Secretariat of the Basel Convention and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with support from the Government of Kenya, and private sector companies including Dell, HP, Nokia and Philips from 12 to 16 March 2012 in UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The Forum adopted a Call for Action on E-waste in Africa. The Call for Action outlines a set of priorities to support development of a regional approach for the legal transboundary movements and the environmentally sound management of e-waste for the African continent to protect human health and the environment as well as to promote opportunities for social and economic development. For more information about the Forum, please click here.
For detailed information about the results and findings generated through studies undertaked under project can be found in the publication "Where are WEEE in Africa? Findings from the Basel Convention E-waste Africa Programme".