Institutional Matrix for Sustainable Waste Management

Abstract

1.1 Background information Ensuring environmental sustainability is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2000. This underscores the priority the world places on achieving and maintaining a clean and safe environment for both present and future generations. Waste management is therefore a subject of immense interest to all nations and peoples. Significant differences, however, characterise waste management service delivery in developed and developing countries. Though the developed countries generate larger amounts of wastes, they have developed adequate facilities and strong institutions to manage them. Developing countries, on the other hand, are faced with an uphill task of providing adequate facilities for waste management and to ensure their sustainable operation and maintenance. The Millennium Development Goals Report for 2007 notes that half the population of the developing world lack basic sanitation and that in order to meet the MDG target, an additional 1.6 billion people will need access to improved sanitation over the period 2005-2015 (United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs [UNDESA], 2007; World Water Development Report [WWDR], 2009). The delivery of sustainable waste management services in developing countries has therefore become an issue of grave global concern. In line with the United Nations’ blueprint for sustainable development, Agenda 21 (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development [UNDSD], 1992), which recommends support for developing countries as a step towards the agenda, a number of developing countries have requested the collaboration of external support agencies in improving environmental sanitation services delivery. To achieve the MDGs in the poorest and most disadvantaged countries, the United Nations (UN) recognises the need for developed countries to deliver on longstanding commitments to achieve an official development assistance (ODA) target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2015 (UNDESA, 2007). However, many project interventions in direct waste management service improvement by external support agencies have failed to provide lasting positive impacts on the state of environmental sanitation in the recipient developing countries (Menegat, 2002). Many have failed to continue activities after the external support agencies ceased their support (Ogawa, 2000; Pronk, 2001). Several authorities have pointed to the strength of the institutional structures and arrangements as a key underpinning factor to sustainable development in water and sanitation (Department for International Development [DFID], 1998; World Bank, 2000; Antipolis, 2000; Ogawa; 2000).