Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
BIG BET
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is that disposable diapers are mismanaged in the country. 94% of babies in the country exclusively uses single use diapers (UNDP &EEA, 2023), yet only 17% of households have access to waste management services (Census, 2017). This leads to people, particularly in non-urban areas failing to manage their diaper waste in an environmentally sound manner as shown by about 83% of households in the country depending mostly on the open burning of waste as a disposal method, yet there are limited sustainable alternatives locally.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
Data from a previous UNDP AccLab and Eswatini Environment Authority (EEA) experiment in 2023 showed that while sustainable alternatives like re-usable diapers are available in the market, these are in limited supply in the country and awareness on them is quite low with caregivers. This experiment also showed a willingness for mothers to transition towards these alternatives. The same study showed that willingness to pay among mothers and caregivers was a lower that market prices, at E60 ($3) per nappy compared to the market price ranging between E146 ($8) and E173 ($10) per nappy. Municipal councils are also reluctant to collect this type of waste as it significantly reduces the lifespan of landfills. An innovation challenge undertaken as part of this experiment did not yield any useful results in terms of managing single use diaper waste, hence a need to deal with this type of waste upstream. This challenge is driven by the fact that most babis in the country exclusively use diapers without having access to proper waste management systems such as waste collection services and disposal and/ or recycling mechanisms.
Stakeholders involved in this challenges include: communities, caregivers, municipalities, EEA, Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry Tinkhundla Administration and Development, Ministry of Finance, Eswatini Revenue Service, Retailers.
undesired effects include: a. aesthetic value of communities is degraded; b. the dumping of diaper waste causes the threat of releasing pathogens and contaminants into the environment, particularly waterways, thereby threatening human health and aquatic life; c. the open burning diaper waste also emits contaminants into the air; d. disposable nappy waste takes a lot of landfill space, thus proving to be expensive to manage using this method; e. diaper waste is also ingested by livestock which can lead to death and rejection by the market, thus affecting community livelihoods, especially for rural communities who depend on livestock farming.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Statistics on access to waste managemnt services - Census, 2017
Statistics from pervious AccLab/ EEA experiment - UNDP &EEA, 2023
State of the Environment Report, 2021- https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/migration/sz/UNDP-SZ-SOER-Report-2021.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/EswatiniGov/posts/435972294562942/?_rdr
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
There is a lack of awareness of sustainable, cost-effective and user friendly alternatives locally. There is also limited supply and/ or availability of these alternative. Additionally, the up-front costs of these alternatives are high. There is also inadequate access to proper waste disposal mechanisms.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
This initiative focuses on upstream management of diapers contrary to the usual (government) approach of dealing with disposal of single use diaper waste. Our approach also focuses on mapping other unusual approaches besides management of waste post-facto. This experiment also wants to explore incentivizing environmentally friendly alternatives.
Why us: The AccLab focuses on mapping solutions and experimenting with new and/ or untested ideas for dealing with challenges to provide evidence to these other actors for uptake and scaling. Additionally, government's approach to waste management has generally been linear ( produce-use-dispose) and the Lab is trying to bring in circularity. although on paper, the issue of waste avoidance is there, it is not there in practice, hence the lab is experimenting to provide evidence to government on the opportunities for circular waste management.
Why its worth Investment: There are a number of direct and indirect costs on government because of mismanagement of diaper waste (i.e. on health, on water treatment, waste management, tourism, flood damage management). By investing in this work, these costs will be minimised or avoided.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
Co-creating financial incentives for re-usable nappies
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Eswatini Environment Authority
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Main solutions Mapping and experimentation partner
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Ministry of Finance
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
They will be our main partners in co-designing financial incentives for promoting re-usable diapers
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Eswatini Revenue Service
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
They will be our main partners in co-designing tax incentives for promoting re-usable diapers
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Retailers
What sector does our partner belong to?
Private Sector
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
These will be our main partners in ensuring the availability of sustainable alternatives
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
Would the availability of re-usable alternatives in the market result in a reduction in single use diaper waste (as found by the initial experiment)?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Test, Grow
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Co-creation - We will use this method to explore and co-design incentives for promoting the transition to single use diapers.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
They (will) provide detailed information on the success and failures of a transition to sustainable options
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
Parents and caregivers, Ministry of Finance, Eswatini Revenue Service, Retailers
END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.
3Good health and well-being
11Sustainable cities and communities
12Responsible consumption and production
13Climate action
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