How we’re working
Strategic Stakeholder Engagement creates an enriching, collaborative membership experience by connecting all key players.
Supporting our network
We believe that valuing and caring for Africa’s seas creates enduring economic and environmental well-being for all who live on the continent. As custodians of an extensive network that must serve and support our African partners well, we keep working to provide collaborative tools and initiatives to realise a sustainable and just future for all. The African Network Map is an interactive platform that spatially connects waste research and management stakeholders across various sectors of the packaging and waste management value chains. Additionally, our holistic community clean-up campaign, known as Operation Clean Spot, enables us to gather measurable results and develop design principles for a cohesive approach towards waste management across stakeholder groups.
Rising to the challenge
By collaborating, facilitating and networking, here’s what we’ve achieved over four years.
The African Network Map
Provides a valuable Africa-centric information service and has become a trusted source of reliable, accurate information regarding businesses involved in the management, recycling and repurposing of waste.
Guidebook for the Development of National and Regional Action Plans to address Plastic Waste
We’ve developed a Guidebook for the Development of National and Regional Action Plans to Address Plastic Waste in Africa. This guidebook will be packaged and translated to support African countries in meeting their Sustainable Development Goals and any commitments made to the incipient Global Plastics Treaty.
Regional and National Action Plans to address plastic pollution
We have supported various African countries, through our active partnerships with multi-lateral organisations, to draft comprehensive regional and national action plans to address plastic pollution. For example, in close partnership with the Abidjan Convention, we have drafted a national action plan on plastic pollution for Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We have further co-developed a draft regional action plan on marine pollution for the Abidjan Convention area, along with a draft protocol on plastic pollution, and best practice guidelines for the development of national action plans for member countries of the Abidjan Convention. These documents form part of a broader regional framework to combat marine pollution in the Abidjan Convention area. The project has entailed detailed country profiling, the assessment of waste management systems, the collation of information on around 1,500 key stakeholders, and a thorough review of pertinent policies and legislation.
Operation Clean Spot
Operation Clean Spot (OCS) is an innovative clean-up campaign based in Nelson Mandela Bay. The campaign has led to the successful development of the OCS mapping platform and a specialised, integrated model for sustainable waste management across the packaging value chain. This programme has clear design principles that can now be tested, adapted, and implemented across South Africa and the wider African continent, starting with two densely populated coastal cities in Cape Town.
African Network Map Connecting Africa
Open collaboration and networking can develop solutions for sustainable waste management and the protection of Africa’s seas and coastal communities. Our comprehensive, easy-to-use map helps you find waste management organisations, research and community projects, and recycling drop-off and reprocessing sites.
African countries involved
resources developed
African recycling sites included
tonnes of waste diverted
Cast your net wide and find a person, organisation, or site on the map.
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