ZERO WASTE is coming! Green Africa Youth Organisation on its nomination for Prince William's £1 million EARTHSHOT PRIZE
The Earthshot Prize Award winner will be announced on Wednesday (6 November).
Africa Melane speaks to Jacob Attakpah, Project Manager of Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO) in Ghana and Earthshot finalist nominee.
Listen below.
One of the 15 Earthshot Prize Award finalists is Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO).
The winner will be announced on Wednesday (6 November) and will win the grand prize of one million pounds as an investment in their organisation.
Here's why GAYO is a finalist...
The organisation has designed a 'Zero Waste Model' to create jobs and build infrastructure to support circular waste management across Africa.
It brings together waste management specialists with communities and minority groups who work with waste, ensuring all these stakeholders are recognised and can play their part in the model.
GAYO employs and trains people from every part of the community, including women, young people, waste collectors, and waste pickers.
This training includes waste management best practices and other commercial skills. These people can then earn money from selling compost and charcoal briquettes made from waste, which is at the heart of the model.
GAYO also works to engage stakeholders focused on community health and economic opportunity to secure greater awareness and adoption of the model.
Since 2019, they have created 70 green jobs for young people, widows, single mothers, and people with disabilities.
As a result, more than 5,000 people have benefited directly or indirectly from the model.
GAYO is recognised by government ministries as an expert, reliable partner that supports regional task forces and waste management initiatives.
In 2023, GAYO kept 170 tonnes of waste out of landfills — 104 tonnes of organic waste and 66 tonnes of plastic. While they don’t yet measure the impact on air pollution, they estimate their efforts saved the equivalent of 3.6 tonnes of CO2 — about the same as the emissions from a round-trip flight between London and Accra.
GAYO has ambitious plans to build a movement across Africa to drive behavioural change in waste management. They aim to grow from 150 to 500 employees across half of African cities by 2030, extending their reach from Ghana into Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Morocco, Madagascar, Niger, and Nigeria.
As part of this, their goal is to reduce GHG emissions and particle pollution in Ghana by up to 70% compared to open burning, and to divert 50 tonnes/month (600/year) of waste, diverting a total of 4,000 tonnes of waste by 2030.
GAYO’s Zero Waste Model is highly replicable and, if it achieves its plan to scale, it will become the leading approach to waste management in Africa.
Attakpah explains what being nominated as a finalist for the Earthshot Prize Award means...
"It means a great deal to us and the entire organisation."
- Jacob Attakpah, Project Manager - Green Africa Youth Organisation
"Everyone working on the project has put in a lot so to receive this much local and international recognition means we're doing something right and we're grateful for the nominators..."
- Jacob Attakpah, Project Manager - Green Africa Youth Organisation
Attakpah also explains how much just being a finalist has helped the organisation already, so it already feels like a win...
"The support we've received has been overwhelming because we're learning a lot of new things, getting to meet new people, sharing ideas that help us co-create for even better optimisation results. We've also been receiving technical support so it's been amazing."
- Jacob Attakpah, Project Manager - Green Africa Youth Organisation
"It would be amazing to win but, essentially, we're all winners because to have received this kind of support is just amazing. All finalists are also going to be in a year-long fellowship, so you still get to join a select group of fortunate people recongised for the work they're doing."
- Jacob Attakpah, Project Manager - Green Africa Youth Organisation
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.