Meeting in Stuttgart, Germany 2022

In the SDG Indicator Workshops in Ghana in December and in Ethiopia in April, stakeholders from the waste sector discussed which areas urgently need improvement in their respective fields of action and in which areas the respective stakeholders can also exert influence.

From the results, a set of indicators has emerged for Ghana and Ethiopia respectively. This set was discussed again among the SuCCESS 24 team and we considered which indicators are important and can be evaluated. In the end, we were able to compile a finished set of indicators for Ethiopia and Ghana, which will be used for further analyses of the current state and possible scenarios of the waste management corridor between Addis Ababa and Adama in Ethiopia and with the help of which the transferability to Ghana can be assessed later.

At this year's stakeholder meeting, the University of Addis-Ababa, the University of Ghana and the University of Stuttgart were represented, as well as the Addis Ababa City Administration - Cleansing Management Agency, ENDA Ethiopia, AT-Association and WASCAL. All partners presented their current progress in the project and it was discussed which future collaborations are needed for further progress.

In addition, we had the honor to host two experts on project coordination of DAAD/BMBF projects in Ethiopia and research, as well as intercultural specifics in Ethiopia. Dr. Prost from ClimEtSan-onTheGround GmbH spoke about her project on the recovery of nutrients from compostable toilets for agriculture and what difficulties there were in implementing the project due to Covid, unrest in Ethiopia and other factors. Dr. Wosnie from Dilla University, Ethiopia told us about peculiarities of data collection in Ethiopia and what cultural aspects we had to consider.

All in all, we had a very successful exchange with all project partners, which is to be understood as a good basis for further cooperation.

On Friday the 15th of July the SuCCESS 24 project could host the WASTE Network event together with the M.Sc. WASTE of the University of Stuttgart. Three guest lectures were held by our partners from Ethiopia and Ghana to get a deeper insight into the waste practice of the respective countries. After the interesting lectures a get-together took place where the students of the masters program WASTE had the opportunity to exchange ideas with the professors and partners of the SuCCESS 24 project.

Right at the beginning of our meeting, the delegation from Ghana and Ethiopia was given a guided tour of the Institute's own wastewater treatment plant at the Institute of Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Waste Management at the University of Stuttgart. Mr. Maurer, technical plant manager of the wastewater treatment plant, showed us around the whole plant and explained the processes and the research possibilities on site.

In the second working week, we had the opportunity to visit the Burghof landfill in Vaihingen an der Enz and the bio-digester in Backnang together on Monday.

On Tuesdays, we went to a sorting plant in Sindelfingen. Here we got an introduction about the waste management system in the district of Böblingen and a guided tour of the sorting plant, where paper is separated from cardboard, plastic is packed for further processing and the three different types of glass are collected separately (white, brown and green glass).

On Wednesday we went to the composting plant in Krichheim and afterwards to Festo Didactics where we had an interesting exchange with the IHK, Festo Didactics and the SuCCESS 24 team about training opportunities and implementation of methods in the sub-Saharan context. Finally, Adiro, the water competence center in Esslingen-Berkheim, was visited.