Socio-economic assessment and feasibility study on - Öko-Institut eV

16
August 2010
2 Objectives <strong>and</strong> methodological approach
<strong>Socio</strong>-<strong>economic</strong> <strong>assessment</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>feasibility</strong> <strong>study</strong>
on sustainable e-waste management in Ghana
The <strong>study</strong> aims to identify improvement potentials for the Ghanaian e-waste management
capacities through better recycling technologies. Thereby, the analysis is not only limited to
the possibilities of reducing environmental impacts, but it also focuses on multiple socio<strong>economic</strong>
aspects. The <strong>study</strong> looks into feasible ways to integrate the informal refurbishing
<strong>and</strong> e-waste recycling sector into possible business models in order to identify new market
niches <strong>and</strong> generate significant employment <strong>and</strong> income opportunities for the urban poor.
The <strong>study</strong> is composed of two analytical parts: The first part covers the socio-<strong>economic</strong>
<strong>assessment</strong> of the informal refurbishing <strong>and</strong> e-waste recycling sector in Ghana (chapter 3).
The second part covers the analysis <strong>and</strong> <strong>feasibility</strong> of recycling technologies <strong>and</strong> business
models, applicable in the Ghanaian context (chapter 4). The results of the two <strong>assessment</strong>s
form the basis for the subsequent recommendations (chapter 5).
2.1 <strong>Socio</strong>-<strong>economic</strong> <strong>assessment</strong>
The socio-<strong>economic</strong> <strong>assessment</strong> of the refurbishing <strong>and</strong> e-waste recycling sector builds upon
the UNEP/ SETAC “Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products” commonly
referred to as S-LCA guidelines, <strong>and</strong> Öko-Institut’s sustainability toolkit “PROSA – Product
Sustainability Assessment”. The S-LCA guidelines <strong>and</strong> PROSA provide a comprehensive list
of socio-<strong>economic</strong> indicators that were developed from a set of about 3,500 indicators from
international st<strong>and</strong>ards <strong>and</strong> key documents, such as ISO 26000, the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI), the UN Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises,
SA 8000 <strong>and</strong> the ILO conventions (Grießhammer et al. 2006). Detailed descriptions of the
methodologies are given in UNEP 2009 <strong>and</strong> Grießhammer et al. 2007.
The S-LCA guideline <strong>and</strong> PROSA sustainability toolkit follow the so called “stakeholder
approach”. The stakeholder approach implies that different socio-<strong>economic</strong> indicators are
allocated to pre-defined stakeholder categories. For the purpose of this <strong>study</strong>, three key
stakeholder categories were defined to assess the socio-<strong>economic</strong> impacts of refurbishing
<strong>and</strong> e-waste recycling sector in Ghana: (1) Workers, (2) Local Communities, <strong>and</strong> (3) Society.
The following table illustrates the allocation of different socio-<strong>economic</strong> indicators to the
above mentioned stakeholder categories.