Self-empowerment through capacity building on circular economy

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” – With this old English proverb in mind, the German-MENA university network for waste management and circular economy started its capacity building program this year in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. In collaboration with local universities, the waste management/circular economy lecture program was developed by the collaborative work of the university of Rostock (UR), the University of Hamburg (TUHH) and the technical university of Dresden (TUD). In the period from April 19th till May 20th 2021, lectures and seminars were held twice a week using the video communication app “Zoom”. In order to offer a targeted program, a needs-assessment was conducted to determine the current fields of interest.

The offered topics varied from a general characterisation of waste trough physical, chemical and biological parameters from waste treatment facilities like landfills, composting and biogas facilities to recycling and Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA). Additionally, the professors of the MENA-Region partner universities contributed by presenting the current state of waste management in the area. Coordinating the different time schedules of the seven universities was not an easy task, but all the 142 bachelor and master participating students cooperated and made it possible. The experience gained from this lecture series is enormous and can be definitely further developed and utilized. The project team is looking forward to offering a second series starting in September. Furthermore, with the help of the current material, the team will start preparing online lectures which will be offered for free on the webpage of the Hamburg Open Online University.

Find all information about this pilot project of the PREVENT Waste Alliance here.

Picture by Ayah Alassali and Isla Hodgkinson