Lead country
Regional - Africa
Participating countries
Madagascar, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia
Project status
Under implementation
Implementing period
From October 14, 2015 to January 8, 2021
Project ID: 4865
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Technical team
- Chemicals and Waste Programme
Technical area(s)
- Persistent organic pollutants
- Waste management
Sub-area(s)
- Hazardous_chemical_waste
- E-waste
- Unintentional POPs (e.g. furans, dioxins)
Landscape(s)
- Human altered areas
Sub-landscape(s)
- Urban areas
- Rural areas
Transformed sector(s)
- Health care
UNDP role(s)
- Capacity development / Technical assistance
- Convening / Partnerships / Knowledge Sharing
- Data collection and analysis
Strategy
- Management operation
- Technology innovation
- Capacity building
Sub-strategy
- Waste management
- Best available techniques & best environmental practices (BAT & BEP)
- Institutional capacity building
Social inclusion
- Private sector
- Women
- Local community/CSOs
Gender equality
- Awareness raising (on gender)
Gender result effectiveness scale
- Gender targeted
Pathway(s)
- People pathway
- Systems pathway
- Sci-tech pathway
Risk reduction target(s)
- Hazard control/mitigation
- Reduce exposure
- Improve resilience
SDG target(s)
- 12.4 Achieve environmentally sound chemical, waste management
- 12.6 Encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices, reporting
- 6.2 Achieve universal access to adequate sanitation, hygiene
Conventions and protocols
- Stockholm Convention (POPs)
- Minamata Convention on Mercury
Private sector(s)
- Small and medium-sized enterprises
- Individuals/Entrepreneurs
Hot topic
- Health
- Cov-19
- Public-private partnership
About this project
Description
The overall objective of this full size GEF funded project, implemented by UNDP in partnership with WHO and the NGO Health Care Without Harm, is to implement best environmental practices and introduce non-incineration healthcare waste treatment technologies and mercury-free medical devices in four Sub-Saharan African countries (Ghana, Madagascar, Tanzania and Zambia) to reduce harmful releases from the health sector. In each of these four countries, the generation of healthcare waste (HCW) is rapidly increasing. Sub-Saharan countries face particular challenges in dealing with increasing HCW quantities, because HCW treatment technologies that meet international guidelines and fit local circumstances, are simply not available at market prices that facilities and governments can afford. As a result, countries most often opt for low technology incinerators, which result in significant releases of unintentional persistent organic pollutants (UPOPs). Such pollutants are considered to be among the most harmful, persistent, and bio-accumulative global pollutants in the world and therefore controlled under the Stockholm Convention on POPs. Similarly, Sub-Saharan countries face challenges in handling products and wastes containing mercury. Mercury, one of the world's most ubiquitous heavy metal neurotoxicants, has been an integral part of many medical devices such as thermometers and sphygmomanometers. When these devices break or leak with regularity, they add to the global burden of mercury in the environment and expose health care workers to the acute effects of the metal itself. Considering the harmful effect of mercury, the phase-out of such devices by 2020 is anticipated under the recently adopted Minamata Convention.
Objectives
Non-incineration andMercury-free technologiesintroduced in Africancountries.Affordable non-incinerationtechnologies available in theAfrican region.
USD $6,653,195
Grant amount
USD $28,936,164
Leveraged amount (co-financing)
1
Source(s) of fund
Source(s) of fund
Global Environment Facility – Trust Fund ($6653195.00)
Related resources
Geospatial information
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Project reports and documentation