Dr. Martin’s research proposal has been awarded

The title of the research project is, “Analysis of Electronic Waste Management Practices in Tanzania: The Case of Selected Urban Areas. ” The proposed amount is Tanzanian shillings 29,500,000. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services are a prerequisite for socio-economic development of any society in today’s world. ICT provides easy access to information, knowledge, and experience, and hence empowers people to tackle the challenges of everyday life more efficiently. ICT is also vital for economic development and good governance including gender balance, poverty reduction, and improvement of health and education services. However, the fast-growing use of ICT and rapid turn-over in technology (particularly computers, mobile phones, etc.) is creating a growing e-waste stream not only in industrialized but also in developing countries like Tanzania. According to NBS (2019) e-waste generation has increased from about 2 000 tonnes in 1998 to 35800 tonnes in 2017. Further, mobile phones subscriptions have increased drastically from 13.1 million in 2008 to 43.6 million in 2018. The challenge of e-waste is even of greater concern in Tanzania and other developing countries because the majority of these countries lack the capacity for handling and recycling the hazardous materials contained in e-waste. Tanzania has neither specific policy nor law on e-waste management ( NBS, 2019).

The rapid growth of Tanzania’s major cities such as Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha, Dodoma, Tanga, and Mbeya do not match with the e-waste handling capacities. One strategy attempted by the cities of Mwanza and Dar es salaam is the application of non-conventional approaches to the delivery of waste management services. There is little information available about their performance in terms of the extent, quality, and capacity of e-waste management services. The magnitude, flow of e-waste generation and impact of e-waste in the cities of Dar es salaam and Mwanza are not well known. Only a few studies present rough estimates of the installed base of computers and e-waste generated and only analyze stakeholder set-up in Dar es Salaam. Tanzania is also not immune from e-waste generated elsewhere because the Basel Convention has failed to protect developing countries from being treated as dumping sites for e-waste (Widmer et al, 2005; Andrews, 2009). Within that milieu, Tanzania as one of the developing countries, which typically import used electronic equipment is at a greater risk. Moreover, inadequate information on the existing practices and strategies on e-waste management is a concern to all interested parties in the country. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the practices in the management of e-waste across major urban centres of the country whereby in this case Dar es Salaam and Mwanza have been selected to study how they manage e-waste are generated. Finally, since industrialization is inevitable in Tanzania, and that industrialization goes hand in hand with technology, the massive generation of e-waste is projected to rise. Hence context-specific strategies and capacities for dealing with the challenge need to be in place as soon as possible.