EPA Collaboration with Sub-Saharan Africa

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Highlights

Administrator Regan Mission to Mozambique and Ghana

On January 20-29, Administrator Regan completed a mission to Mozambique and Ghana.

Administrator Regan’s mission to Africa responds to President Biden’s call to action at the 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit to expand substantive and meaningful partnerships with African countries, institutions, and people across the continent.

The purpose of the mission was to gain a better understanding of Mozambique’s and Ghana’s environmental challenges and identify areas where EPA can effectively support Mozambique and Ghana’s environmental initiatives. This mission provided opportunities for formal and informal discussions on a range of environmental protection topics with government officials, private sector representatives, and community groups.  

Administrator Regan is the first EPA Administrator to visit Mozambique, where he announced initial collaboration on air quality, responsible mining of critical minerals, and coastal zone management from the effects of climate change.

EPA has a long history of bilateral cooperation with Ghana, where Administrator Regan announced collaborations on clean cookstoves, electronic waste, and environmental education.

• Press Release: EPA Administrator Regan Wraps up Successful Mission to Africa, Reaffirms Commitment to Partnerships in Mozambique and Ghana

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Current and Recent Activities

Air Quality Management Planning

In urban environments, people and pollution often come together, requiring a concerted effort to reduce human exposure and health impacts.  Many of the most rapidly growing urban areas in developing countries experience significant health and climate impacts from air pollution, but have limited data, resources and capacity to address it. EPA’s Megacities Partnership assists targeted countries as they develop air quality management plans, using an approach that can be applied across cities in Africa and other areas around the world. 

Accra, Ghana

The first-ever Megacity Partnership, which happened in Accra, Ghana, showed how decision support tools, such as the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP-CE) tool, could be used in a wide variety of situations to assess the health burden of air pollution and potential benefits of air quality improvement programs. Under the Partnership, Ghana EPA staff were trained to analyze the benefits of air pollution control, including healthier populations and economic productivity, and to compare costs to set priorities.  In addition, under the Partnership EPA is assisting Ghana EPA to manage their air quality monitoring data. 

EPA built upon Ghana EPA’s experience using air quality monitoring and analysis to strengthen their understanding of pollution sources and prioritize reductions. These priorities were then included in an air quality management plan that identifies areas for action, including revised national ambient air quality standards and vehicle emissions testing. The Ghana EPA launched the Greater Accra Metropolitan Areas Air Quality Management Plan(64 pp, 2.2M, About PDF) in August 2018.

Many other African cities can usefully follow the Ghana EPA example of assessing air quality, understanding the benefits of taking action, and developing a plan to take action. This project serves as a replicable model for air quality management planning.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 

In the second Megacity Partnership in Africa, EPA worked to develop an integrated air quality action plan for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This work was undertaken in collaboration with the Addis Ababa  Environmental Protection and Green Development Commission; Ethiopian Ministries of Health and Environment, Forest and Climate Change; the Addis Ababa Mayor’s office; and the Ethiopian Meteorological Agency. EPA will also collaborate with UN Environment on a technical training program to build capacity on air quality assessment and communications/awareness-raising.

The project team reviewed available information to analyze the current health burden of particle pollution and priority emissions sectors and worked with interested parties to implement priority measures. The Addis Ababa Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) (60 pp, 7.9M, About PDF) was launched in June 2021.  

Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities (EPIC) Africa Network

The EPIC model partnership pairs universities with cities to enhance a city’s capacity to build resilience, adapt and develop more sustainably. Cities take the lead in identifying priority issues to address.

The EPIC Network (EPIC-N)currently consists of a Secretariat and 38 implementing partners, including five international partners. The EPIC Africa network, formed in October 2017, was the first EPIC network outside of the US. The first Africa training workshop took place in Durban, South Africa in February 2020. 

In Africa, EPIC projects are currently underway in Zambia, South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique. Examples of projects in Africa include:

• Zambia: Students assessed options for improving storm-related flooding, runoff and sewage for the Lusaka informal settlement, and prepared a report to the city council listing options for action.
• South Africa: Students are researching techniques and developing plans to restore ecosystem function to the wetlands in the township of Durban to control flooding and siltation issues.

Global Methane Initiative in Africa

The Global Methane Initiative (GMI) (also see EPA's GMI Website) is a voluntary, multilateral partnership that aims to reduce global methane emissions and to advance the abatement, recovery and use of methane as a valuable clean energy source.  EPA plays an active leadership role in the GMI.

Four countries in Africa (Cote-D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria) are are GMI Partner Countries. 

Learn more about country projects:

• Cote-D’Ivoire
• Ethiopia
• Ghana
• Nigeria

Addressing Lead Paint in Africa

EPA is chair of the Advisory Council of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint,  which is working toward a goal of laws banning lead paint in all countries. 

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Ethiopia have lead paint laws as of July 2018.

The UN Environment Program has received approval for a multi-year Global Environment Facility (GEF) project on Lead Paint. The project has two main goals: helping 40 countries to establish or improve lead paint laws and conducting Industry demonstration projects with small and medium size enterprises in 5-6 countries. Both goals include work in African countries.

To kick off the UNEP GEF Lead Paint Project in Africa, an African regional workshop was held in May 2019 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The workshop provided an overview of the Lead Paint Alliance recommended actions and available advice to support the establishment of lead paint laws in the African region. Fifty participants from at least 20 countries attended, including representatives from African environment and health agencies, industry and civil society.

• Learn more about EPA Leadership in the Lead Paint Alliance

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Past Activities

West Africa Drinking Water Laboratory Capacity Program

The overall goal of the Drinking Water Laboratory Capacity Building Program in West Africa was to ensure the delivery of clean water in urban areas by building capacity of labs for sampling, analysis, and quality assurance, beginning in Ghana. The work, funded by USAID and conducted in collaboration with Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and the African Water Association (AfWA), enhanced the proficiency of participating labs by training personnel to use best available methods to produce high quality analytical data. 

Program results have included:

• A new Quality System and Quality Assurance Manual was developed for drinking water labs in Ghana, which can be shared in the region. The Laboratory Quality Assurance Manual was completed and distributed to all eleven regions of the GWCL in 2019. 
• Labs in Ghana have adopted good practices for data collection and analysis. 
• Through AfWA’s peer-peer learning system, a mentoring relationship was developed between Ghana and Anglophone countries in West Africa (Nigeria). A peer-peer learning plan was developed with trained auditors available. 
• GWCL and other AfWA member utilities developed enhanced knowledge to conduct lab audits and to adopt good practices and methods, including proper contents of a lab quality manual and access to available training resources.

Good Environmental Governance

As part of its activities to strengthen environmental laws and regulations, build capacity for enforcement and compliance, and promote public participation in environmental decision-making, EPA supported the East Africa Network on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (EANECE).  This work was undertaken in partnership with the International Network on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE),   DANIDA (the Danish aid agency) and the Kenyan Environmental Management Authority (NEMA).   Activities included providing training support in launching the Network, support for a Network Coordinator based at NEMA, providing training and support in priority areas, and providing web-based and other relationship building mechanisms for experts in the region.

EPA worked to improve public health through increasing the capacity of urban providers in Sub-Saharan Africa to deliver safe drinking water in a sustainable way through piped water supply systems, through the development and implementation of Water Safety Plans (WSPs). This work was conducted in partnership with the International Water Association (IWA),  the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations-Habitat  and local water utilities. The goal of the program was to establish a foundation to scale up WSP implementation across the Africa region to ensure that a significant proportion of urban populations in the African continent are consistently supplied with safe drinking water.

Project elements included the formation of nine Water Safety Plans through three Water Operator Partnerships (WOPs). The project also included WSP training and the development of an online Water Safety Portal for Africa. EPA and partner countries also created the Africa Water Safety Plan Network with the mission to achieve reliable, consistent and equitable supplies of safe drinking water in Africa. Members included EPA, IWA, WHO, UN-HABITAT, Aquaya, the African Water Association, GIZ, and Cap-NET (UNDP). 

• Learn more about this project: Water Safety Implementation Plan in Africa 

EPA has been involved in improving vehicle fuels and promoting emissions control technologies to improve air quality in urban areas. As a founding Partner of the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV), EPA was involved in providing support to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in phasing out of leaded gasoline, which occurred throughout the region in January 2006. Building on this success, EPA worked through PCFV to support Sub-Saharan African countries to lower sulfur in fuels.

Global Methane Initiative

Past activities in Sub-Saharan Africa under the GMI include: 

Accra, Ghana: EPA developed and implemented a project to address short-lived climate pollutant (SLCP) emissions from the solid waste sector in Accra. This project was conducted in collaboration with local government officials at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), national government officials from the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency, representatives of private companies in the waste management sector, and other partners.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Under the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), EPA worked with local government officials at the City Government of Addis Ababa (CGAA) and other local partners to develop and implement a project to address SLCP emissions from the solid waste sector in Addis Ababa. Subsequently, EPA provided technical assistance and capacity building for the closure of the Addis Ababa dumpsite and the opening of their new sanitary landfill, in partnership with the Solid Waste Institute for Sustainability and the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre (HoA-REC). The technical assistance included onsite training at the University of Texas Arlington and the City of Denton, Texas landfill.

Nairobi, Kenya: EPA worked with the GMI and the CCAC to provide technical expertise to support the Kenyan National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to improve Kenya’s National Solid Waste Management Strategy. This work included a pilot to test implementation of the national strategy and design of landfill gas capture projects to reduce emissions.

Toxic Substances: E-Waste