Post of Duty: Remote and Suriname
The IDB Group is a community of diverse, versatile, and passionate people who come together on a journey to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our people find purpose and do what they love in an inclusive, collaborative, agile, and rewarding environment.
About this position
We are looking for a consultant to provide Consultancy Services for the assistance to the Environmental Authorities to raise awareness on the principles of sustainable waste management, directed to different target groups, including the preparation of methodological toolkits to support awareness campaigns.
You will work in the Water and Sanitation Division (WSA), which is part of the Department of Infrastructure and Energy. WSA seeks to ensure universal and sustainable access to high-quality water, sanitation, and solid waste management services to contribute to the sustainable economic growth of the IDB member countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and to the improvement of the quality of life of its citizens.
Country and Project background. Suriname has a surface area of 163,265 km2, of which 93% consists of tropical forest areas. Its population is about 598,000 inhabitants. The economy of Suriname is driven by its abundant natural resources, with mining accounting for nearly half of public sector revenue and gold representing more than 80% of total exports. Suriname was estimated to generate around 253 kton of waste, including 140 kton of household waste and 28 kton of industrial waste by the end of 2022. A total estimate of 2954.31 m3 of hazardous waste is generated per year within the Greater Paramaribo region, which is the most dominant region in Suriname when it comes to generation of hazardous waste as it covers 45% of the total population. Projections for 2040 indicates that 403 kton of waste will be generated, including 263 kton of household waste . More than 95% of all waste, including hazardous and infectious waste, is dumped on open and controlled dumpsites, with limited environmental and public health protection. An Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan (IWMP) was commissioned in September 2022 by the Government of Suriname and provides the roadmap and actions required to overcome the challenges in waste management.
Integrated solid waste management in Suriname has legislative, institutional, and financial challenges that affect progress in the areas of waste collection and transportation; waste reuse and recycling; management of medical waste, hazardous waste, e-waste, etc. and overall safe waste disposal as there are no Sanitary Landfills (SLF); hence, open dumping, controlled dumping, burning, and other practices are prevalent in the various districts throughout Suriname. These challenges result in inadequate environmental management practices posing risks to human health, the environment, and the country’s ecosystems. The main challenges that contribute to this situation are: (i) The lack of national coordination of agencies involved on all aspects of integrated waste management; (ii) several agencies are currently involved in Solid Waste Management (SWM), with overlapping functions and their regulatory roles/responsibilities are not always clear; (iii) a lack of adequate guidelines and operational standards based on the integrated waste management principles in context with the Environmental Framework Act (2020); (iv) waste management is heavily subsidized by the central government, without any collection of fees from households or companies; (v) where collection services are not provided, waste is dumped illegally on vacant lots in the city, in water bodies or randomly in rural areas; (vi) there are no systems in place for separate collection and protected disposal of hazardous waste streams in Suriname; and (vii) limited information and data available regarding waste.
Solving the challenges faced by Suriname on ISWM, requires of a concerted effort from Government, Civil Society and Developing agencies. In that sense the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment has taken the lead in developing and implementing the IWMP and has received direct support from the French Development Agency (AFD) to finance activities to address challenges (v) and (vi). The TC will complementarily finance activities to address challenges (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) and (vii) in coordination with AFD.
A Technical Cooperation SU-T1169 was approved in December 2022 and will support the implementation of identified priority activities that are included in the IWMP which was provided under a component of the CReW+ program for Suriname as a partnership project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) being co-implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
IDB now wants to assist Suriname in the improvement of awareness on the principles of sustainable waste management at different target groups, households, educational centers, offices and companies, following the 5R principles (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle).
Existing situation. Dispersed waste on the streets, industrial waste contaminating surface and drinking waters, uncontrolled waste burning in backyards, clogging of drainage canals and subsequent flooding of streets, unhealthy drinking water and deteriorating environmental conditions are evident examples of the actual inadequate waste management throughout the country. The national and regional authorities are working hard on the improvement of legislation and the regulatory framework to better manage and control the different waste streams, and improved standards for waste collection and processing are laid down in the Environmental Framework Act and the standard for waste collection and processing SSB 010:2019. The Multi Year Development Plan 2022-2026 and the Integrated Waste Management Plan (IWMP) also highlight the importance of the 5R principles to be realized.
Although many people in Suriname are of course aware of the pollution of the environment and some even directly suffer from bad waste management, there is not a good level of awareness that preventive actions like buying less polluting materials, reducing the amount of waste by segregation, reusing and recycling at household level or in companies can significantly contribute to a better waste management in the country. The knowledge to do so is also often missing and support from the authorities side is often not available. The facilities and infrastructure for proper waste management in the country are deficient and the budgets are low. Especially in remote areas and small villages no real waste management system is in place.
Making the countries’ waste management more sustainable therefore relies very much on cooperation of the population and companies. Improvements can only be realized when sufficient awareness exists and both individuals and companies take responsibility to prevent waste to enter the environment.
The general objective of this assignment is to improve the environmental, health and living conditions in Suriname by enhancing awareness of sustainable solid waste management at different levels of society, following the 5R principles.
Specific objectives of the assignment . The specific objective of this assignment is to prepare a strategy and methodological toolkits for campaigning materials which can be used during awareness campaigns at different levels of society throughout the country, including small villages and remote areas. The assignment focuses on the translating of theoretical and technical aspects of waste management into understandable and practical information and guidelines for campaigns directed at households, offices, companies and educational centers.
The envisaged strategy and toolkits form the basis for later detailing and practical implementation and actual campaigning activities for the different target groups.
What you’ll do :
Scope of Services
This assignment focuses on the following specific activity:
(i) Development of a phased national awareness campaign strategy on the principles of sustainable waste management based on the 5-R principles (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle) as indicated as a main objective in the IWMP, directed to different target groups, such as households, offices, industries, companies, and educational centers. Including the preparation of methodological toolkits to support awareness campaigns that builds upon previous national and regional initiatives.
The awareness campaign strategy must be phased, in such a way that first the overall strategy is defined and toolkits are prepared that can be used in a later stage during the actual campaigns per target group. The Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment will be in charge of the final campaign.
Based on earlier experiences, the consultant may include in their workplan and methodology the exact tasks that are deemed necessary to achieve the project objectives. The following tasks should be included but are not exhaustive:
Key tasks
Task 1: Virtual Kick-off meeting with IDB and involved counterparts
Task 2: Concise familiarization with the waste situation and problems in Suriname at the different levels of society and the specific positions of households, companies, offices and educational centres with respect to waste management.
The consultant must obtain a good picture of the actual waste practices to be able to provide an overview of bottlenecks and main waste streams where improved awareness can have significant positive effects.
Task 3: Organization of stakeholder meetings, discussions sessions with authorities, NGO’s and representatives of companies and educational centres:
In order to define best which issues are important and need to be part of the awareness campaigns, consultant should discuss the findings and proposed issues during a multi-stakeholder meeting.
Task 4: Definition of the content of the awareness campaigns for the different target groups. Definition of aspects needed to be highlighted to raise awareness among households, companies/offices and educational centres for maximum effects:
Awareness on negative effects of actual practices of waste management and pollution: e.g. health aspects, vectors, natural values, danger of clogging and flooding, financial aspects of pollution, societal costs, etc.;
Awareness on possibilities for improvements by implementing 5R principles at all levels, households companies/offices and integration in educational materials for schools and educational centres;
Awareness on resulting positive effects of improved waste management and application of 5R for the neighbourhood, health, nature etc., for the inhabitants themselves, for company results, company image and marketing, financial savings, etc.
Task 5: Definition of the Strategy for the awareness campaign for the different target groups:
How to reach the households (social media, television, door to door information, posters in villages, small scale demonstration projects, public meetings);
How to reach the companies (through branch organizations, preparing environmental inspectors to disseminate awareness along with permit control tasks, direct mailings, training sessions, demonstration projects, etc.);
Kind of campaign proposed: use of celebrities to gain a wider audience, using a more technical approach, positive approach (what can be gained) or negative (warning for dangers and risks), etc;
How many companies and households etc. should and can be reached;
Who to reach at household level (the family members directly, through local organizations, through schools);
Who to communicate with at the company level (owner, director, HSE officer, workers) and how to guarantee that the information is disseminated in the company;
How to integrate awareness building on waste management in school curricula (what age of schoolkids, students, what kind of programs, booklets, integration in existing assignments, games, theatre, etc.);
Indication of costs involved to carry out a real campaign (rough unit costs).
Task 6: Preparation of toolkits for the awareness campaigns.
Prepare the basic content of the campaigning materials for the different target groups, in such a way this information can be used as direct input for the different campaigns and can be finalized subject to different designs and lay-outs, different media channels etc. One toolkit for households and one toolkit for educational centers and schools that can be used on a national scale.
For companies, as they all have very different types of processes and waste problems a more generic system must be prepared that allows companies to understand their own situation and waste management practice. This must assist them in identifying different types of waste and how they impact on the own organization and the environment. The toolkit must give details about identifying methods of good practice in recycling, re-using and disposal and must help companies to understand how the industry waste impacts on the environment, what are the main benefits of managing waste in the workplace, what is organizational good practice with regards to waste management and what legal requirements exist.
Task 7: Conduct a workshop to present the strategy and toolkits for the awareness campaign for the different target groups.
In all these phases, especially for households, the campaign must reach communities of very different social dimensions and education level.
Content of the campaigns can be based on successful campaigns internationally applied or in the country itself.
The proposed strategy, toolkits and awareness campaigning materials can be based on international successful implemented campaigns and should also be aligned with existing initiatives in Suriname like the SUWAMA Projects & regional initiatives such as under the GEF 5558 project waste compendium. SUWAMA gained experience in Suriname with environmental awareness campaigns.
The assignment will be carried out partly in Suriname and partly from the consultants’ home office. Two visits to Suriname are foreseen. One visit for the inventory phase, a second visit to present and discuss in detail the proposed Strategy and content of the toolkits. Limited local travelling is required.
Most of the activities will take in Paramaribo where the Ministries, authorities, most companies and Universities are located. Meetings with NGO’s authorities and branch organizations will be held mostly in Paramaribo.
Site visits to NGO’s educational centers, local community representatives and example companies/branch organizations must be included.
Main counterpart for the content of the awareness study is the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment.
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