E-waste report offers no new information

When the Digital Solidarity Fund was unveiled in 2005, it was thought to be the clearest testimony that the developed countries were committed to working with developing countries to bridge the digital divide.

The Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) acted as the perfect launch pad for the North-South fund, that was expected to oversee the process.

Four years gone, and one of the projects that DSF has to show was the Electronic Waste Research Project that was conducted jointly with computer manifacturer Hewlett Packard and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa).

The research, conducted on the ground in Kenya and Morocco found that African countries do not have legislation to support e-waste mechanisms. But we already knew that. Weak legialstion has been a topic for discussion during WSIS in 2003, it has been given as an excuse by governments which do not want to adopt the latest technology.

It is sad that HP and DSF committed all that money to discover what has already been discovered, it would have made more impact, had HP decided to do what it has done in Europe; build a multi-million dollar eWaste facilities and pay for end-of-life disposal of Personal Computers.

HP is one of the biggest supplier of PCs, Laptops and Printers in Africa, it should spend an amount calculated to be in direct proportion to the number of HP units sold into the African market to put in place waste disposal mechanisms.

The findings form the first phase of the project; the second phase aims at "engaging corporate and government partners to further extend e-waste management programmes to other countries and tackle the problem of e-waste in the entire continent".

But why do research while Europe has formed the basis of what needs to be done? why not just do it?

As part of the first phase, HP unveiled a pilot project in South Africa as a key component of tackling the growing amount of electronic waste in Africa. The project aims to create new jobs in disadvantaged communities by "equipping people with the relevant training and equipment to dismantle electronic waste both safely and responsibly."
 
Instead of doing research and contributing to the many research papers gathering dust in government offices, the money should have been used to put up centers in the three countries.