Formalising E-waste in Ghana: An emerging landscape of fragmentation and enduring barriers

Richard Grant and Martin Oteng-Ababio

Development Southern Africa, 2021, vol. 38, issue 1, 73-86

Abstract: Since 2016 Ghana has introduced several initiatives to formalise parts of the e-waste economy. This e-waste management system is based on the experiences, expert policy advice and partial funding from the Global North. Employing serial interviewing, we assess the rolling out of this formalisation pathway, the evolving e-waste management landscape and reflect on informal terrain’s reconstitution and remaining barriers, such as inadequate funding, low levels of awareness about informal e-waste management among policymakers and the general populace and inadequate training programmes to equip informal operators with technology. Several formal/informal economy overlaps are now visible in a ‘gray space.’ Some low-skilled e-waste work, ancillary collection services and workplaces are being upgraded and integrated but informal infrastructure remains very deficient. Downgrading of some e-waste work is taking place. Fragmentation of the main hub is occurring as rival informal operations continue in various locations, and new small ventures are emerging in peripheral locations.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0376835X.2020.1823822 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:deveza:v:38:y:2021:i:1:p:73-86

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CDSA20

DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2020.1823822

Access Statistics for this article

Development Southern Africa is currently edited by Marie Kirsten

More articles in Development Southern Africa from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().