During the 1st Open StEP Meeting in Africa a group of StEP members met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with Ethiopian governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. The meetings targeted establishing a project for pro-actively addressing e-waste issuesin Ethiopia. During the three days meeting in early October 2011, the participants screened available information on stocks and growth rates ofelectrical and electronic equipment (EEE) in Ethiopia, available infrastructure for the end of life (EoL) of EEE in the country, as well as a first framework for a future project for management of e-waste in Ethiopia to prevent e-waste problems in Ethiopia.
It was agreed to establish the “Ethiopia E-Waste Management Working Group” (EEWoG) consisting of the Steering Committee (SC) and the Advisory Group (AG). The Steering Committee is set up of local stakeholders, for example from the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and other Governmental organizations, as well as academics and NGOs. The SC will be in control of the Ethiopian e-waste management project. The Advisory Group (AG) will consist of non-Ethiopian and international organizations such as the StEP members US-EPA, UNU, Öko-Institut and University of Limerick. Both the SC and the AG will decide about their final composition in the remainder of 2011.
As a first project target, the EEWoG decided to promote and increase the activities of the Demanufacturing Factory (DMF), which is already established close to Addis Ababa. The SC will come up with more concrete proposals for next steps. These efforts are supported by StEP with resources provided by US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) through a cooperative agreement signed last year.
Contact:
info@step-initiative.org
