Ugo Aliogo
The Lagos Hub of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, have expressed desire to partner with the New World programme, on the ‘Plastic 2 Resources’ project.
According to a statement made available to THISDAY by the Global Shapers Community, through a grant initiative valued at $56,000.
The statement also noted that the initiative is a social engineering project designed to change the behavior of citizens on waste disposal, through a waste collection and aggregation system.
The statement further hinted that the New World programme is a partnership between the Coca Cola Foundation and Global Water Challenge that encourages participation of civil society organisations, “to create innovative, inclusive, and sustainable solutions that align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
The statement added that the initiative seeks to improve sanitation in Lagos through hygiene behavioral change, adding that empowering young people and women in order to build, “our collective climate resilience.”
According to the statement: “A major outcome of the initiative will be waste management and marine litter reduction. With the support of technical partner Ecoprune, a social enterprise promoting waste recycling and an approved aggregator in the Blue Box Initiative, we plan to tackle the recycling issue in Lagos, Nigeria.
“As a community of passionate changemakers, our partnership will provide us a platform to empower women and youth through improved education and job creation for more resilient communities and mitigate the effects of climate change through developing sustainable packaging, marine litter and recycling initiatives – as key pillars of the initiative.”
The Project Lead, Lagos Hub, Global Shapers Community, Dean Okoduwa, expressed satisfaction to partner with the New World programme, stating that would allow the organisation to empower underserved communities in Lagos by impacting the lives of women and youth through job provision.
The Public Affairs, Manager, Communications and Sustainability, Coca-Cola Nigeria, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, remarked that the project focuses on two crucial passion points, “for us at Coca-Cola which are women empowerment and sustainable waste management.”
She added: “We recognise the importance of preserving our environment and we are passionate about empowering women to reach their full potential. For this reason, we are excited to be partnering with Global shapers to create meaningful impacts in our communities.”
The statement maintained that the estimated 13,000 tons of waste generated daily in Lagos presents a commercially viable opportunity, “our sustainability plan is to promote waste recycling, aggregate plastic waste, and process plastic waste to input for high-value products.”
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