By Olumide Aderibigbe
Admission into the International Labour Organisation will top agenda as Waste pickers delegates from Nigeria and 12 other African countries gather again at Kenya for this year’s International Alliance on Waste Pickers (IAWP) meeting which takes place in Nairobi, Kenya, from February 22, to March 2, 2023.
It would be the second time the waste pickers would be congregating in Kenya after its maiden meeting in 2020 where they indicated interest to form an African body to defend it’s interests.
The confab will also offer the IAWP an opportunity to draw up resolutions and come up with a blue print which would be canvassed at a larger gathering of the organization which is slated to come up later in the year in Australia, where concrete steps will be taken on its moves to join the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The three-day international conference beyond its global intention will also be looking among others issues relating to waste management and recycling on the African continent and how each member country are responding to the challenges springing therefrom. Other issues that would receive their attention are the prioritisation of challenges and priority issues and trends in the waste pickers subsector.
The conferees would also be presenting strategies developed during its maiden meeting in Kenya in 2020, address issues relating to power mapping within the continent and set regional goals for the IAWP.
Participants would also be examining issues relating to climate change and it’s impact on workers in the informal economy, such as waste pickers and what mitigating roles they could harness to help prevent more catastrophic environmental impact.
The participants would come up with a position on COP discussions and national agenda on climate change.
The IAWP is to appropriately mainstream Africa waste pickers and to see the presentations of engagements with waste pickers and presentation of engagements with informal recyclers as well as the transition of plastic waste management among others.
The IAWP Interim Board are expected to stay in Kenya till March 2, 2023, to draw up its position paper which is expected to be presented at the global meeting of the waste pickers coming up later in the year in Australia.
The Australia meet is being out together to ratify the steps being taken to get the IAWP admitted into the International Labour Organisation (ILO).