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

About

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 is strengthening its waste management circular economy while connecting migrants and refugees to green jobs. Through its project, the city is training 200 migrants and refugees as waste collectors and sorters, supporting five new sustainable waste processing cooperatives, and linking them to one another as well as other private companies. The city is also helping 30 clients engage in sustainable urban horticulture

Context

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. 

Action

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

The project is helping more than 300 city residents, including migrants and refugees, access the waste value chain and improve waste management practices. Dar es Salaam is training five entrepreneurial cooperatives in migrant enclaves to convert plastic, paper, and organic waste into compost, biogas, and animal feed. The project is also linking 200 garbage collectors and sorters with these cooperatives and existing recycling companies that can buy waste from them. Additionally, the city is supporting 35 migrants and refugees to engage in urban horticulture using organic compost.  Dar es Salaam provides 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.  

Impact

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 economy and promoting migrants’ socio economic inclusion. 

To date, the project has identified 12 entrepreneurial cooperatives working on waste management across five city wards. Of these groups, the city is planning to select five cooperatives to which to provide business and waste conversion training. Dar es Salaam has already identified and is prepared to implement three methods for converting waste to secondary products within these cooperatives, including never-before-used technologies like electric three-wheelers for garbage collection.  

Additionally, the project has identified 122 garbage collectors, more than half of whom are migrants, to connect with recycling companies. By selling sorted waste to these companies, garbage collectors will not only improve waste management in the city but also earn income.   

Finally, the project has identified 35 clients already engaged in or interested in urban horticulture and is linking them with compost producers and land.  

By introducing best practices and new green technology for waste management, the project is helping safeguard Dar es Salaam’s natural environment, increase the reuse and recycling of waste, and build climate resilience. In ensuring migrants and refugees have access to this new value chain, the project is lowering barriers to the waste economy and creating green jobs for migrants, refugees and other marginalized Tanzanians.   

Through its GCF grant, Dar es Salaam is finding innovative ways to support its migrant community and turn waste into wealth.   

Stay tuned for more impact updates at the end of Dar El Salaam’s GCF grant term!