Waste Management (SL0014)

Status quo or problem/ issue to be addressed
Continued filth in the city with no clear authority on which agency should take action on where waste should be deposited, collected and disposed of.
Main objective
Establish structures to address waste management issues in Freetown
Brief Description of Commitment (140 character limit)
The governance around waste management in the city is uncoordinated with lack of information on the roles of the various stakeholders. The resultant effect is continued filth posing a serious challenge for diseases such as malaria and cholera and the circumstances even worrying in the aftermath of Ebola. This situation has been persistent even when a private company MASADA has been contracted and operating for two years to clear the waste in the city and transform it to fertilizer and gas. Government of Sierra Leone is paying huge sums of money without citizens receiving the required services. As Sierra Leone moves to the Ebola recovery phase of its development planning process it becomes necessary that a clear policy around waste management is formulated in the city; detailing specific roles of key institutions, companies and players in order to ensure clear lines of accountability on the delivery of services.

The commitment will ensure the development of an implementation strategy which will serve as a roll out plan with clear deliverables and timelines that will be made available to the public through education so that both citizens and Agencies will be clear on their duties and responsibilities

Commitment 3. Waste Management

Commitment Text:

The governance around waste management in the city is uncoordinated with lack of information on the roles of the various stakeholders; resulting in continued filth and diseases. Government of Sierra Leone is paying huge sums of money without citizens receiving the required services. A clear policy around waste management in the city, and clarity on the specific and different roles of key institutions, companies and players would bring accountability to improve the situation.

This commitment will ensure that the development of an implementation strategy which will serve as a roll out plan with clear deliverables and timelines that will be made available to the public through education so that both citizens and agencies will be clear on their duties and responsibilities.

Milestones:

1. Review of existing Waste Management Contract and report on the effectiveness of the present Waste Management Process in the Freetown City Council
2. Engage local communities/general public to determine a most effective way for Waste Collection through community meetings and media outreach programs involving Civil Society, Ward Development Committee and Tribal Authorities, Freetown residents and responsible agencies
3. Develop a Comprehensive Waste Management Policy and implementation strategy with Waste Management Authorities, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Local Councils and private Company outlining clear roles and responsibilities

include responsibility for Waste Management Company to transform waste

4. Popularize the new policy and implementation strategy at local communities and the national level
5. Ministry of Health to train and Deploy 50 Sanitary officers in the City
6. Create Citizens Education Programmes on “Keep the City Clean” theme
7. Conduct annual assessment of the effectiveness of the implementation of the new policy and implementation strategy for waste management.

Responsible institution: Freetown City Council.

Supporting institution(s): Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Youth, Ministry of Health, Road Maintenance Fund, Masada Waste Management Company, National Youth Coalition, Campaign for Good Governance, Network Movement for Youth and Children Welfare.

Start date: July 2016                                                                                  End date: June 2018

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aimed to make the capital city cleaner through improved policy, and better coordination among waste management agencies. At the time of writing the action plan, a key source of filth in the city was the lack of coordination among these government agencies. [20] The government developed a comprehensive waste management policy and a public education initiative to address this challenge and use accountability to make the city cleaner. Specifically, the commitment set out to:

1. enter into a reviewed waste management contract for the city with a private sector company;
2. engage local communities in waste management through community meetings and public education;
3. develop and implement a comprehensive waste management policy and implementation strategy;
4. train and deploy additional sanitary officers in the city; and
5. monitor and annually evaluate the effectiveness of the new waste management policy

Status

Midterm: Limited

By the midterm, three milestones were complete or in progress: Milestone 2 (engaging civil society in waste collection discussions), Milestone 5 (conducting stakeholder engagement with local communities), and Milestone 6 (training and deploying sanitary workers). These activities were initiated under Operation Clean Freetown, which began in April 2016. Operation Clean Freetown was part of the Presidential Recovery Priorities to address the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. [21] The government provided no explicit information that linked Operation Clean Freetown with this commitment. For more information, please see the 2016−2018 midterm report. [22]

End of term: Limited

At the end of the implementation period, no progress had been made beyond the activities initiated during the first year.

Milestone 1: The review of the waste management contract and its efficacy was completed. In June 2018, the contract for the company called MASADA was terminated by the Freetown City Council, according to the head of Freetown City Council’s (FCC) Environmental Department. The head of this department said that an evaluation found the company’s performance unsatisfactory. [23] The officer however, could not provide evidence of this assessment.

Milestone 2: The FCC and NGOs continued to engage local communities and the general public on waste collection through public education exercises and community meetings. One CSO, the Center of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODHOSAPA), confirmed the community mobilization activities of the Water, Sanitation and Health Network (WASHNET) through public education and community meetings. [24] In April 2018, the government announced a mandatory monthly public cleaning across Sierra Leone that was to be led by local councils. According to media reports, and confirmed by CODHOSAPA, public education and community mobilization was also done under Operation Clean Freetown. [25]

Milestone 3: The government did not develop a waste management policy or implementation strategy for the city. FCC’s Environmental Officer said that the council did not have a separate, new waste management policy and pointed out existing national policy documents on waste management. [26] These two documents were the Waste Management Situational Analysis and the National Policy Roadmap on Integrated Waste Management, developed prior to the action plan. However, the milestone outlined the development of a waste management policy or implementation strategy specifically for Freetown. Since this was not achieved, the milestone was not completed.

Milestone 4: Both the Director of CODHOSAPA and FCC’s Environmental Officer confirmed that activities to popularize a new waste management policy or assess the efficacy of its implementation did not occur. [27] Neither contact was aware of any new waste management policy developed by the Freetown City Council.

Milestone 5: Civil society leaders involved with this commitment and environmental issues could not confirm whether 50 sanitary officers were employed by the Ministry of Health and deployed in the city. However, they told the researcher that additional personnel were employed at FCC in the course of Operation Clean Freetown. [28]

Milestone 6: Based on the researcher’s observations, television programs, jingles, and stickers were produced as public education materials to keep Freetown clean as part of Operation Clean Freetown. [29] Civil society leaders confirmed the use of these materials. [30] Some activities were done by NGOs like the Water, Sanitation and Health Network.

Milestone 7: According to the Head of the Freetown City Council’s Environmental Division, an annual assessment of the efficacy of the new policy and implementation for waste management did not happen. According to him, a new waste management policy was not developed. [31]

Did it open government?

Access to information: Did not change

Civic participation: Did not change

Prior to the action plan, waste management was a problem in the capital city, resulting in continued filth and diseases. [32]  The government did not educate the public on healthy habits for better waste management and public sanitation. During the implementation of the commitment, the public in Freetown was provided information to change their habits and practices around waste management. This did not represent a change in Freetown City Council’s waste management practice, because the information given to the public only concerned the need to keep the city clean. Government-held information, such as the waste management policy, and the assessment results of the waste management contractor were never given to the public, as intended in Milestones 1, 3, 4, and 7. While the public education on city cleanliness was commendable, it only brought marginal change to opening government.

Carried forward?

The government had not released the third action plan at the time of this report. The commitment should not be carried forward into the next action plan because in the course of implementing the commitment, the government was forced to change waste management in the capital city during the aftermath of the Ebola epidemic of 2013−2014. Although the Ebola recovery program ended in June 2017, a new Freetown Emergency Recovery Program currently includes waste management issues. Also, the new government introduced a monthly cleaning exercise, in which all citizens are required to take part.

[20] Government of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone National Action Plan 2016-2018 (OGP, 1 Jul. 2016), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/sierra-leone-national-action-plan-2016-2018/.

[21] The President’s Recovery Priorities ran from April 2016 to June 2017. The President's Recovery Priorities, “Ebola don go, leh we make Salone grow!” (2016), http://www.presidentsrecoverypriorities.gov.sl.

[22] Charlie Hughes, Sierra Leone Mid-Term Report 2016-2018 (OGP, 9 Jul. 2018), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/sierra-leone-mid-term-report-2016-2018-year-1/.

[23] Zainu Kpaka (Head of Freetown City Council’s Environment Department), interview with IRM researcher, 17 Sept. 2018.

[24] Director of CODHOSAPA, interview with IRM researcher, 13 Aug. 2018.

[25]  Id.

[26] Waste Management Situational Analysis, http://www.washlearningsl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Waste-Management-in-Freetown-Final-report-2013.pdf http://www.washlearningsl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/WasteManagement-in-Freetown-Final-report-2013.pdf; National Policy Roadmap on Integrated Waste Management, washlearningsl.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/10/RWA-SL-Roadmap-Policy-Final-20150316.pdf.

[27] Director of CODHOSAPA, interview; Zainu Kpaka (Head of Freetown City Council’s Environment Department), interview with IRM researcher, 17 Sept. 2018.

[28] Director of CODHOSAPA, interview.

[29] See The President's Recovery Priorities, “Ebola don go, leh we make Salone grow!” (2016); Government of Sierra Leone, “Operation Clean Freetown” (The President's Recovery Priorities’ Facebook page, 2019), https://www.facebook.com/operationcleanfreetown.

[30] Director of CODHOSAPA, interview.

[31] Kpaka, interview.

[32] Waste Management Situational Analysis, , http://www.washlearningsl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Waste-Management-in-Freetown-Final-report-2013.pdf;