Dar es Salaam, Tanzania:  Enhancing Urban Migrant Resilience through Sustainable Waste Management Practices

In 2022 the City of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was selected as a grantee of the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF), the MMC’s instrument to channel international funding directly to cities to implement inclusive projects of their own design. 

With support from the GCF, the City of Dar es Salaam strengthened its waste management circular economy while connecting migrants and refugees to green jobs. Through its project, the city trained 239 migrants and refugees as waste collectors and sorters, supported five new sustainable waste processing cooperatives, and linked them to one another as well as other private companies. The city has also helped 35 clients engage in sustainable urban horticulture.

As the largest commercial hub in Tanzania, the City of Dar es Salaam is a top migration destination. Estimates suggest that more than 100,000 people commute to the city every day from across Tanzania. More than 70 percent of the city’s population are internal migrants, many of whom have moved in part because of climate change. 

A lack of adequate urban planning and infrastructure has led many newcomers to Dar es Salaam to settle in informal settlements. These unplanned communities lack basic service provision, place pressure on natural resources, are disproportionately vulnerable to climate disasters, and suffer from poor waste management. While the city government has made efforts to expand its migrant communities’ access to social services and climate resilience, limited resources and capacity have presented barriers to implementation. 

In partnership with the E-LICO Foundation, Dar es Salaam used the GCF grant to strengthen the city’s waste management circular economy while connecting migrants and refugees to green jobs.

The project helped more than 300 city residents, including migrants and refugees, access the waste value chain and improve waste management practices. Dar es Salaam trained five entrepreneurial cooperatives in migrant enclaves to convert plastic, paper, and organic waste into compost, biogas, and animal feed. The project also linked 239 garbage collectors and sorters with these cooperatives and existing recycling companies that can buy waste from them. Additionally, the city supported 35 migrants and refugees to engage in urban horticulture using organic compost. Dar es Salaam provided all project clients business training and new waste management technologies, including electric three-wheelers to transport waste. 

The project has forged new business relationships between clients working on different aspects of waste management, recycling, composting, and farming, strengthening the waste value chain and creating green income-generation opportunities.  

As a result of its GCF project, Dar es Salaam is not only improving waste management and climate resilience but also cultivating a local green circular economy that will benefit migrants and receiving community members alike. 

The project had three primary groups of clients, all working in the green value chain and more than half of whom were migrants and refugees. 

First, the project delivered business and waste-conversion training to five entrepreneurial waste management cooperatives located in four city wards. One cooperative is entirely owned and operated by women. Using their training, these cooperatives implemented innovative technologies like cage composting to turn organic waste into animal feed and compost and convert plastic waste into building materials. 

Second, Dar es Salaam connected 239 garbage collectors, sorters, transporters with recycling companies interested in purchasing primary waste products. This linkage created new income streams for the waste workers while also improving local sanitation. 

Third, the project provided 35 city residents interested in urban horticulture with land and training to practice climate-smart farming, bolstering local food security and providing income generating opportunities for farmers. 

Each of these “wastepreneur” groups were linked through project activities: garbage collectors and sorters could sell primary waste products to the entrepreneurial cooperatives, who then converted that waste into compost and animal feed that the urban horticulturalists could use on their farms.   

As a result, Dar es Salaam’s project has created a strong circular green economy, strengthened social safety nets, and laid the foundation for a culture of sustainability that can prevent future climate displacement. The project created 18 new jobs, and project clients reported a five percent increase in income on average compared to before the project. These gains are especially critical in the low-income neighborhoods where many project activities took place.  In ensuring migrants and refugees have access to this new value chain, the project has lowered barriers to the waste economy.