The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its partners in Uganda have held a two-day workshop to discuss the electronic waste management landscape in displacement settings. The 27-28 March event in the capital Kampala was aimed at sharing lessons from IOM’s pilot E-waste project in Bidibidi settlement, with key partners with a view scaling up the successes of the initiative. It was attended by key stakeholders from the Government, humanitarian agencies, academia and private sector

The workshop marked the end of the pilot project “Greening Humanitarian Responses Through Recovery, Repair, And Recycling of Solar Products in Displacement Settings”, funded by Innovation Norway in northwestern Uganda. The overall objective of the project was to identify solutions that reduce and manage e-waste, while prolonging energy access, creating employment opportunities, supporting alternative forms of livelihoods, increasing knowledge transfer, and promoting environmental sustainability.  

Partnering with BRIGHT Products, Total Energies Offgrid Solar Solutions (TEOSS), and Solvoz, IOM set up systems for product collection and repair, as well as creating awareness on electronic waste disposal. The initiative employed 10 community mobilizers across Bidibidi’s five zones and the host community. The collected lanterns were serviced by newly trained repair technicians, in some cases by picking viable parts from spoilt lanterns to extend the life of others. 
Meanwhile, the old batteries from spoilt lanterns were tested in TEOSS’s state-of-the-art battery laboratory (Batlab), with viable ones repurposed into second-life battery packs capable of running small businesses, powering schools and hospitals.
 IOM’s partner Solvoz hosted workshops with the humanitarian sector to create technical guidelines for the sustainable procurement of lanterns and batteries, as well as complementary e-waste services such as repair and recycling centres available on their open access platform. The project was supported by IOM’s implementing partner in the field, Mercy Corps.

Speaking at the closing workshop, IOM Uganda Chief of Mission Sanusi Tejan Savage noted that the workshop was important because it sought to share lessons aimed at addressing environmental degradation and climate change which are two serious drivers of forced migration. He added that when people are displaced, in a place like Bidibidi, solar lanterns are one of the few clean sources of light, but there is no specific safe way to dispose if them once they get spoilt. 

‘We have sensitized the population about the dangers of poor disposal of e-waste and have had several conversations about “greening” procurement of electronic products. We have also trained community youths in repairing disused solar lanterns, collected, repaired and handed them back thousands of solar lanterns to their owners” Savage said. 

“In the Batlab, we have recycled disused batteries into second-hand battery packs capable of running small businesses, lighting schools, and hospitals. In the process, we have created jobs and supported livelihoods.”

The first phase of the project, a needs assessment, was conducted in 2020 to analyse e-waste management conditions in five refugee settlements and camps in Uganda and Kenya, as well as a market dialogue with the private sector, helping to shape the approaches for the pilot phase in the world’s second largest refugee settlement, Bidibidi. 

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For more information / media enquiries, please contact IOM Uganda Public Information Officer, Richard M Kavuma. Email: rmkavuma@iom.int  and  ugandapiu@iom.int;     Tel +256 312 263 210 / +256 772 709 917.