Putting Integrated Sustainable Waste Management into Practice: Using the ISWM Assessment Methodology

THE INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE Waste Management (ISWM) framework presented in this book is an accessible framework for implementing bottom-up, participatory processes devised to develop urban waste management in developing and transitional nations. Drawing on work undertaken in nine cities, the book serves as an effective guide for examining existing systems of urban waste management, and provides a structure for planning, documenting, implementing and evaluating an ISWM assessment. Partly description and partly prescription, the book includes both a presentation of methodology based on experience and instruction based on lessons learned.
Chapter one introduces the ISWM assessment process and provides information on its background. A more detailed account of the assessment process is presented in Chapter two, which looks in detail at the ISWM framework, and contrasts it with conventional engineering approaches to dealing with waste management, with their inherent problems and shortcomings. The chapter highlights the three important dimensions that are considered in an ISWM assessment, namely the stakeholders, the practical and technical elements, and the sustainability aspect of the local context.
Chapter three describes a four-stage, seven-step action plan, exploring the necessary steps to be taken, their respective outputs, and the importance and roles of multiple stakeholders in the initiation and management of an ISWM assessment. With a view to examining the role of the facilitating organization, a monitoring and evaluation framework is then presented, followed by discussion of data collection, analysis, reporting and reviewing issues.
Chapter four introduces the technical issues related to the ISWM assessment, by covering the data needed as the basis for an assessment. Topics covered include the scope of an assessment, substance, research, indicators and presentation of outcome. This account is followed by a detailed discussion of the various baseline elements, sustainability aspects, stakeholder identification, mobilization, analysis and methods for the prioritization of key issues.
Chapter five discusses such practical issues as stakeholder ownership of the assessment, financial commitment, duties and composition of teams, and the roles and responsibilities of the facilitating organization, local authorities and NGOs. It also covers group meetings, maintaining stakeholder mobilization, the duration of an ISWM assessment, and related financial issues.
By way of conclusion, Chapter six offers a perspective on the factors that support and impede an ISWM assessment, the impact of an ISWM assessment on solid waste development, and the long-term social and economic impacts that an assessment can have on a city.