The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Small Grants Programme (SGP) is launching a new initiative – the “Plastic Innovation Programme” – which promises to contribute to the responsible use of plastics and the sound management of plastic waste across communities worldwide.

The pledge came at an official side event to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions’ Conferences of the Parties (COPs) 2021 on July 29.

The objectives of the event – elucidated by Ms. Yoko Watanabe, Global Manager of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP), and Mr. Xu Haoliang, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau of Policy and Programme Support, UNDP - were to launch the SGP Plastic Innovation Programme (PIP), mobilise awareness and support for its implementation, as well as facilitate learning across countries and stakeholders on how to address the various challenges posed by plastic pollution. 

Speakers at the event included, among others, Ms. Chen Sulan, GEF SGP Programme Advisor and UNDP Plastics Task Force Lead, as well as Hon. Kavydass Ramano, Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Government of Mauritius. 

Ms. Chen provided general context to the launch of the Plastics Innovation Initiative, explaining the urgency required in tackling a crisis that is steadily worsening. Over 50% of plastics, today, are used only once and then disposed, with less than 5% being recycled, globally. The rest would take hundreds of years to naturally biodegrade, while in the meantime they would slowly release toxic substances, micro and nano-plastics into the ecosystem, thus affecting all living organisms and their food. In May 2021 the UNDP established a taskforce committed to integrated “Triple 100” targets that aim, by 2030, to work with stakeholders so as to improve plastic regulation in 100 countries, support 100 cities and islands with effective municipal plastics waste management plans and use reduction strategies, as well as shift 100 million people towards more sustainable practices. 

The new Plastics Innovation Programme would harness the typically flexible, decentralised and multi-stakeholder nature of the GEF-financed SGP, to create a special funding window for community-based projects, which may then be further scaled up by UNDP’s larger intervention.

The Small Grants Programme has been  implemented by UNDP since 1992 in over 127 countries: it provides up to USD50,000 to civil society organisations (CSOs) for community-level projects whose review and oversight is entrusted to national steering committees and country teams comprising of local academics, government agencies, private sector and CSOs. 

The Plastics Innovation Programme is set to invest USD 5.2 million in the next 2 years, to support a “local-to-global” network of 200 “plastic intelligent” communities across 68 countries in their efforts to promote plastic use and waste reduction, sustainable product design and ecological alternatives, circularity and environmentally-sound management (ESM) of waste.

Hon. Minister Ramano provided the participating delegates with an overview of the waste management challenges facing the island nation of Mauritius, stressing that plastic waste accounts for about 15% (around 75,000 tonnes) of the total solid waste generated in the country annually, and in particular that barely 4% of all that plastic waste is currently recycled. The government has pledged to make Mauritius a “plastic free” country by 2024 with a series of policy interventions that promote circularity; develop  a comprehensive “Solid Waste Management Strategy & Action Plan”; amend regulation on plastic bags and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles; ban single use non-biodegradable plastic products; establish an ad-hoc Plastic Management Division within the Ministry of Environment.

Presentations by Ms. Lydia Essuah, Director, Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) at the Ghanaian Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as by Ms. Thu Huyen, National Coordinator, UNDP, GEF SGP Vietnam, have enriched the event with additional country-based case studies that further highlighted the need for local-inspired approaches mobilising all stakeholders involved, from government agencies to private sector and, most importantly, communities.

By Dr. Edoardo Monaco – Delegate to UNEP-BRS COPs July 26-30, 2021, GAD-CBCGDF Sustainability Leadership Platform

[The “GAD-CBCGDF Sustainability Leadership Platform” is a cooperation scheme established between the Globalisation and Development (GAD) Programme of Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College (BNU-HKBU UIC) and CBCGDF]

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