SUSTAINABILITY
09-06-2023 by Freddie del Curatolo
Italy was among the leading nations at the second assembly of the United Nations programme for human settlements Un-Habitat in Nairobi, thanks to agreements and project signatures not only involving Kenya but also our own country.
The presence of the Undersecretary for the Environment and Energy Security, Claudio Barbaro, testified to the desire for a path based on facts and not on the same unproductive political chatter for which Kenyan President William Ruto himself, in his opening speech at the five-day meeting, criticised the G28 convention in Sharm El Sheik last November.
Over the past few days, the foundations have been laid for continuing green energy collaboration between the two countries, with a meeting at the Kenyan Ministry of Energy, followed by a bilateral meeting with representatives of the Brazilian government: both countries will play an important role in the coming months, as they will assume the presidency of the G7 and G20 respectively. Thus, Barbaro and his South American colleagues have 'moved forward' with plans for the localisation of environmental sustainability, i.e., that environmental improvements not only affect metropolises, but also so-called 'secondary' cities, i.e., towns with fewer than 200,000 inhabitants.
Then, on the sidelines of the Un-Habitat days, a project was kicked off that honours us and will be able to solve one of the great scourges of the Nairobi slums, the informal settlements that contain 2 million people living at the limits of human tolerability. Waste management is certainly one of the most obvious and worrying problems of these slums, and Italy, through the Agency for Cooperation and Development (AICS) has decided to start with the Korogocho slum, presenting the 'Waste Wise' project.
A two-year initiative with the United Nations as a partner in addition to the Kenyan government. The signing ceremony was held by the Italian Ambassador to Kenya, Roberto Natali, with the director of Un-Habitat's Global Solutions Division, Rafael Tuts, in the presence of the Head of the AICS office in Nairobi, Giovanni Grandi, and Undersecretary Barbaro, as well as Kenya's Secretary for Urban Development, Said Athman.
The project aims to set up a sustainable waste management system to improve the social, health and economic conditions of the inhabitants of Korogocho, one of the largest informal settlements in the Kenyan capital. The same area has benefited in recent years from redevelopment interventions by the Italian cooperation within the framework of the Italian-Kenyan debt conversion programme, worth a total of around EUR 46 million.
"The initiative represents a further example of the partnership with Un-Habitat and the Kenyan authorities, aimed at increasing the sustainability of urban areas from an environmental perspective," said Natali. "Thanks to the financing of the 'Waste wise Korogocho' project, there will be a further positive impact in a neighbourhood where Italy's commitment has been continuous, making a real difference to the lives of those who unfortunately still live in precarious conditions. Helping in a 'wise' way to dispose of waste, starting from the capital's deprived areas, is not only a 'good practice' but also the best example that can be set to then apply the same method elsewhere, as Grandi explained. "This initiative will introduce a pilot approach to solid waste management in Nairobi, which we hope can be replicated elsewhere. The long-term goal is to work with the private sector, formal and informal, to build a sustainable waste supply chain in Korogocho and Kenya," he said.
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