In Sub-Saharan Africa, two Connective Cities dialogue events initiated an exchange on municipal service delivery in general and solid waste management (SWM) in particular. Practitioners from local administrations, civil society and private sector exchanged on successful practices, advised each other and created outlines of local action plans to improve SWM in an integrated manner.

By means of virtual learning strategies, Connective Cities continues supporting the practitioners in further developing and implementing their projects and plans. Responding to individual and collective capacity development needs, the platform offers a range of web-based learning opportunities, mobilising know-how among the existing network as well as external expertise. As one important common topic, "Recycling Organic Waste" will be addressed by a webinar series, which provides participants with applied knowledge on potential approaches and technologies for Sub-Saharan African cities.

The first session of the series deals with "Financial Sustainability of Separated Waste Systems". A separated system in which different types of waste are collected and processed separately, is an essential precondition for high quality resources and effective recycling. Particularly organic waste needs to be of high quality when processed into compost. One core obstacle in introducing separated systems is its related costs. Municipalities (and other service providers) in Southern Africa face severe challenges in generating sufficient revenues for all types of public services – waste management being one of them. The webinar addresses this issue by looking at a number of important conditions and calculations that should be considered to ensure financial sustainability of a separated system. It is based on experience from Germany, a country with a rich history of a separated system, and supplemented with international experience. Mr. Norbert Evermann, project manager at AVG Köln, will be giving a presentation and be available for discussion with participants afterwards. His presentation addresses the following topics:

• Fundamentals for customer fees: legal basis and regulations for fee collection (e.g. cadaster)
• Incentives with steering function
• Models to calculate costs and charges  

Attendees of the webinar are invited to prepare questions and participate actively to allow for an informative debate. The webinar will be free of charge.

For registration and further information, please contact Leona Schmidt-Roßleben:
<link>Leona.schmidt-rossleben@connective-cities.net