Community-based waste management for inclusive livelihoods and health
Challenge
Outlying areas of Medellin, where forcibly displaced people often settle, lack adequate waste management, leading to pollution, water contamination, and resource over-extraction, affecting environmental and human health. Vulnerable groups often engage in informal waste picking for income, which is dangerous, undignified, and poorly remunerated.
Solution
Support skills building and identify possible formal accreditation of waste pickers, developing – with the support of an NGO and an academic institution – an elderly- and disability-inclusive community-based waste management system with value-addition activities for enhanced income, improved health standards, and community empowerment.
Impact
100 people from refugee, internally displaced, and host communities, with vulnerable groups represented, benefit from improved livelihoods and working conditions. Best practices developed in terms of waste processing and value addition (e.g., urban composting for sale of fertilizer).