Local Market Institutions and Solid Waste Management in Accra’s Open-Air Markets

ABSTRACT

Solid waste management is a global concern that has been handled in several ways in different parts of the world. In cities of the Global North, measures meant to prevent or minimise solid waste generation and its associated challenges are based on the waste management hierarchy, whereas in cities in the Global South, the active involvement of the public and private sectors is well documented. Existing studies cover practices of solid waste collection, reuse, recycling and landfilling by private formal and private informal actors. The term informal actors has often been used to refer to itinerant waste buyers, waste pickers and recyclers. Local African institutions existing in marketplaces – such as women known as ‘market queens’ or ‘commodity queens’ and market chairmen, whose management roles are not necessarily geared towards livelihood creation – have, however, been neglected. This lack of attention to the roles of local institutions in solid waste management potentially undermines efforts aimed at waste minimisation and the achievement of policy measures such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goal 11) that seeks to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Hence, based on the cases of the Kaneshie, Kantamanto and Madina markets in Accra, empirical evidence of the role that local market institutions play in solid waste management is provided. Based on this, an argument is made for removing structural barriers impeding local market institutions’ participation in existing systems for managing urban market environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Accra
• local institutions
• market queens and chairmen
• open-air markets
• solid waste management

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank all the research participants for providing valuable information and the directors of Waste Management Departments at the La Nkwantanang Madina Municipal Assembly and Okaikoi South Sub-Metro of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly for providing the needed assistance.

Both authors contributed to the conception of the study. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Rosina Sheburah Essien under the supervision of Manfred Spocter. The draft manuscript was written by Rosina Sheburah Essien. Manfred Spocter commented and reviewed all versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

The funding support for this research came from the Graduate School of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University.

Ethical approval was granted by the Stellenbosch University’s Research Ethics Committee under project number 9765.

All informants participated voluntarily after giving their informed consent.

Notes

1 An indigenous ethnic group in Accra.

2 Bohy3 means ‘promise’ in the local dialect.

3 Named after the Reddco residential apartment building adjacent to the market.

4 Head porters are market assistants, usually women, who carry loads on their heads. The term kayayoo(yei) is used in Ghana to describe such women head porters: kayayoo (singular) and kayayei (plural).

5 Kayabola literally means carriers of waste or waste collectors. It is from the concept of kayayei that kayabola is derived. Whereas waste pickers prefer recyclable materials, kayabola collect and dump all materials defined as waste.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosina Sheburah Essien

Rosina Sheburah Essien is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra-Ghana.

Manfred Spocter

Manfred Spocter is in the department of geography and environmental studies, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.