Affectionately called “the wild heart of Africa,” Zambia is situated at the crossroads of Central, Southern, and East Africa and nestled between eight countries. Despite being landlocked, Zambia is graced with the spectacular Victoria Falls that it shares with Zimbabwe, and the massive Lake Tanganyika, the world’s longest freshwater lake.[1] Beneath the surface of the country’s ever-fertile soil, Zambia is endowed with many natural resources, including copper, cobalt, zinc, gold, and silver.[2] Above the surface, Zambia has a large elephant population and other iconic animals such as the rhinoceros, African buffalo, and the Nile crocodile, all spread across its diverse forest and wetland ecosystems.
Thanks to tourism and exports such as copper, the country of 19.5 million people was known as one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent through the first decade of the 2000s; however, its growth soon dipped.[3] The COVID-19 pandemic further slowed Zambia’s momentum. Beyond affecting a once boisterous economy, the pandemic exposed the nation’s fragile coordination and response system in managing chemicals and waste, especially during crises.
To address the increasingly overwhelming problem of ensuring sound chemicals and waste management, the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) has partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Chemicals and Waste Management Programme on a 3-year project. This project will strengthen the capacity of Zambia’s relevant institutions to better safeguard people and the environment from hazardous chemicals and waste.
Zambia is not new to spearheading efforts in this field. The country previously made commitments to address waste and chemicals. In 2011, Zambia signed the Rotterdam Convention to prioritize responsibilities and mechanisms to safely handle the importation of hazardous pesticides. Zambia also developed a National Implementation Plan for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and conducted a Minamata Initial Assessment on the Minamata Convention on Mercury. These commitments—along with its obligations towards the Basel Convention—are major steps toward successfully addressing chemicals and waste in a country determined to build a robust chemicals and waste management system.
Zambia’s partnership with UNEP comes at a critical time. Currently, through revised legislation, the government is seeking to empower stakeholders within and outside of ZEMA with the authority to ensure environmental compliance in all provinces across the country. This effort cannot be overstated, as ZEMA’s efforts have been hampered due to limited resources resulting in the agency’s absence in seven out of the country’s ten provinces. UNEP’s funding aims to catalyze the process of achieving an efficient and effective chemicals and waste management system in Zambia.
The initiative takes a multifaceted approach, aligning its objectives with the key requirements stated in Zambia’s reformed chemicals and waste management legislative framework. These requirements include improved stakeholder coordination, awareness raising, training and capacity building, and private sector involvement.
To address these focus areas, the project will establish a National Multi-stakeholder Coordinating Committee (NMCC) and strengthen coordination, capacity, and communication through tailored awareness raising and training activities for all stakeholders. This starts with conducting national assessments on the country’s current coordination and communication mechanisms. The assessments will serve as a baseline and a guide the NMCC will use to enhance existing efforts. In turn, these efforts will be assisted by national tertiary and vocational training institutions, that will help implement the planned training and capacity building programs.
The government recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be one of many emergencies capable of overwhelming a country’s coordination system, be it in the field of public health or chemicals and waste management. To build an effective response system, the project will also focus on developing a resilient national coordination system to tackle chemicals and waste management-related emergencies. This may include piloting the establishment of an integrated waste recycling industrial park to recycle medical and hazardous waste generated during a pandemic or other emergency.
Additionally, the UNEP-backed project will develop a financing mechanism for the nation’s agenda of promoting a green and circular economy. Limited access to sustainable financing is a persistent issue for implementing Zambia’s ambitious chemicals and waste management plans, thus, establishing a sustainable financing plan that eases pressure off the national budget is imperative.
The theme for this partnership is sustainability. It is embedded in the objectives and complements the government’s unrelenting commitment to build a permanent solution for the nation’s chemicals and waste management. With time, Zambia could be a glowing example worth emulating by its eight neighbours and across the continent.
