The induction workshop for the County Executive Committee Members of Environment, Water, Climate Change, and Natural Resources Management kicked off on 14^th December 2022 at PrideInn Paradise Hotel in Mombasa County. The theme of the three-day induction was 'Reengineering the Natural Resources Management Sector Governance Towards Outcome Driven Service Delivery in County Governments'.

The forum brought together the Executive Committee members from the 47 counties. Other key stakeholders included KEPSA, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ministry of Water Sanitation and Irrigation, National Treasury and Economic Planning- FLLoCA Program, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF), Water and Services Regulatory Board (WASREB), Water Sector Trust Fund, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Gatsby Africa among other stakeholders.

KEPSA took part in the discussion about ways to achieve sustainable waste management in counties during a session themed 'Accelerating Transition from Linear to Circular Model in Waste Management', which was moderated by Mr Ken Olouch of the Council of Governors (CoG). KEPSA was represented on the panel by Ms Faith Ngige; the Ministry of Environment and Forestry was represented by Mr Jacob Kimani; NEMA was represented by Mr Robert Orina; Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Center was represented by Mr Arthur Mwangi, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was represented by Mr Geoffrey Omedo.

In light of the increasing demand for employment and climate change, the private sector shared insights on innovative approaches for increasing the uptake of circular model for sustainable waste management. The private sector has adopted the circular model of managing production and consumption and is thus taking innovative steps in reducing waste in production stages, adopting green and circular models including take-back schemes, and tapping into public-private partnership models for financing material recovery facilities.

To enhance accountability measures, the private sector has embraced extended producer responsibility through which Producer Responsibility Organizations' will implement collective obligation of product lifecycle management. There is also increasing investment in waste processing for organic Waste processing through black soldier flies, plastic recycling, and electronic waste recycling.

County policies, plans, and budgets are developed by the County Executive Officers with input from the County Assembly before being submitted to the National Treasury's external regulatory agencies and the Office of the Controller of Budget. County waste management plans should be developed in the new regime under the Sustainable Waste Management Act (2022) in order to mainstream waste management in county planning and budgeting. Counties are to also establish waste management infrastructure to promote and enforce source segregation, collection, and reuse, as well as setup of material recovery facilities, among other roles.

From the session proceedings, it was clear that the country needs to be deliberate about designing, planning, resource allocation and coordination of all actors in the circular waste value chain for the realization of sustainable waste management. Partnerships and collaborations will be key in realizing the transformative shift in making the environment clean for sustainable socio-economic development.