Building the case for women waste entrepreneurs

Scientists have found that to keep our planet as livable as it is today, greenhouse gas emissions need to peak by 2025 and reach net zero by 2050. is generally agreed.

To meet this tall order, significant efforts have been expended on expanding renewable energy generation and greening transportation, two of the world’s biggest sources of emissions. However, other prospects have been overlooked in this scramble. For example, improving waste management and building a circular economy could reduce around 20% of emissions, while also reducing local pollution and biodiversity loss. This opportunity will only grow. Municipal solid waste generation is expected to increase by 70% by 2050.

Women waste entrepreneurs – women engineers, educators, managers and scientists – are in a clear position to solve this problem, often working in emerging countries and focusing on waste issues. Masu.

“What makes women entrepreneurs unique compared to their male counterparts is that they are driven by a desire to make a difference in the world. They are more likely to innovate to solve local problems. , designing inclusive solutions and hiring more women as we do so,” said Delilah Khaled, Foundry Fellow and president and founder of global development advisory firm ImpaXus. her Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT; “They also tend to be more capital efficient than men and assess risk more holistically, resulting in higher returns for investors in the long run.”

Unleashing the potential of female waste entrepreneurs

Last October, Khaled joined 45 people at a roundtable discussion to discuss the need for women waste entrepreneurs in tackling the climate crisis, the barriers they face, and the strategies needed to remove these barriers. Industry experts were invited. (The event produced a white paper, “The Connection between Women’s Waste and Climate,” which details the group’s findings and next steps.)

The investments currently flowing to women waste entrepreneurs tend to focus on recycling plastics in a narrow range of activities and people, primarily micro-enterprises and households. But this underestimates the breadth of women’s involvement in other areas of waste management, from food to fashion to electronics.

Khaled highlighted Joyce Kamande, co-founder and chief operating officer of Safi Organics in Kenya, as an outstanding example of a female waste entrepreneur. Safi works with her more than 3,500 women-owned small farms to produce organic fertilizer from agricultural waste. Its main product, biochar, sequesters carbon and enriches the soil. According to the white paper, Safi’s fertilizers have so far helped more than 12,000 farmers increase their yields by 30% and increase their income by 50%, while also recycling 60,000 tons of waste and revitalizing 7,000 acres of farmland. It is said that it has become

To support more women waste entrepreneurs like Kamande, the roundtable had two key recommendations.

First, investors and non-governmental organizations need to take several steps to leverage climate finance for women waste entrepreneurs.This starts with More systematic collection and management of data on women waste entrepreneurs in emerging markets — Data that can better articulate how investing in women waste entrepreneurs can drive climate change mitigation and support stronger economic returns.

Climate change investments related to zero waste and the circular economy must also incorporate a gender perspective. “Even with little data, we know there are synergies when investing at the intersection of climate, gender and waste,” Khaled said. The white paper also says there is a need to increase the representation of women in fund managers and in the organizational governance of climate funds.

Second, and related to this, More concerted efforts are needed to build a complete entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports women waste entrepreneurs. “We need more funding, but finance alone won’t work, just like increasing women’s leadership roles alone won’t work,” Khaled said. “We need to break down silos and take a holistic, coordinated approach to building this ecosystem. We need radical collaboration to get new voices around the table. Masu.”

This work includes mapping existing market opportunities and launching initiatives such as fellowships, prizes and accelerators to support women waste entrepreneurs in emerging economies. It is also necessary to identify areas where women’s voices are missing in this process and to build networks of women waste entrepreneurs across regions and sectors. Finally, Mr. Khaled noted the importance of including informal waste workers in these dialogues. These are women who collect and manage waste in places where city or state-supported waste collection infrastructure is inadequate or non-existent. These workers collect, separate, and recycle waste to make a living, and often serve as the last line of defense against ocean plastic pollution.

“You can’t talk about waste, emissions reduction and the circular economy without talking about the informal sector,” Khaled said. “In emerging economies, the vast majority of waste management services are provided by informal workers, up to 90% in some locations.”

Advance

Since the publication of the white paper, Mr. Khaled has promoted these efforts at conferences and panel discussions. She has also seen this paper cited in her other works, including the United Nations Environment Programme’s ‘Global Waste Management Outlook’.of It’s a report on waste management,” Khaled said.

“My biggest goal with this effort was that it was about policy action and bringing attention to the people who can change policy,” she said. She wants more donors, investors and development finance institutions focused on women waste entrepreneurs.

“The United Nations, USAID, the World Bank, these are the people who influence thought, planning, and intervention around the world,” Khaled said. “I hope to continue moving forward until women’s diverse efforts to reduce and transform waste are recognized across sectors as essential to climate action and a net-zero future. .”

Read the White Paper “Linking Women’s Waste to the Climate”