Dennis Durbin, the Bureau Environmental Officer (BEO) for the Bureau for Global Health (GH), has been on the road collaborating with multiple teams across Africa to address important healthcare waste (HCW) management issues. GH invests project time and resources to improve healthcare in developing countries around the world. These projects provide critical healthcare services to individuals and communities that would otherwise have little or no access to such services. However, appropriate HCW management options are often limited or unavailable in such project locations. To help tackle this problem and others, the GH BEO support team recently traveled to multiple countries in Africa.

Zambia

The GH BEO participated in field visits alongside Brian Hirsch (Africa BEO), the Zambia Mission team, and Arianne Neigh (ECOS Contractor). The purpose of the visits was to assess the state of HCW management related to USAID activities throughout the country. In addition to assessing compliance and identifying challenges, the visits resulted in an assessment report, which investigates needs and feasibility in improving HCW management in Zambia. Recommendations from the report will serve as a basis for future discussions and actions among the GH BEO, Africa BEO, and USAID Mission teams.

Uganda

GH BEO Support team member, Maram Salaheldin (ECOS Contractor), participated on behalf of the GH BEO in the 2019 Africa Regional Advanced Workshop on Environmental Compliance and Environmentally-Sound Design and Management. Over five days, USAID staff from different Missions throughout the continent attended this advanced workshop and brainstormed solutions to common challenges, including how to safely and properly manage HCW. Participants also shared success stories from their teams and learned about upcoming GH initiatives, such as the technical update of the HCW Sector Environmental Guideline (SEG).

South Africa and Malawi

The GH BEO and his support team visited a variety of health service delivery project sites. The purpose of these visits was to evaluate the effectiveness of the overall environmental mitigation and monitoring system of a global health commodities supply chain program. This included evaluating the management structure of the program, which establishes how field activities are communicated to a centrally-located oversight team—a common challenge for GH projects. The GH BEO and his support team identified successes and potential areas for improvement, in collaboration with representatives of the Missions and Implementing Partners involved, resulting in a summary report with suggested next steps.

Combined, the recent travels by the GH BEO and his support team highlighted some common HCW management threads and allowed for GH and Africa to engage in significant dialogues that will inform upcoming initiatives and improvements. Stay tuned to GH EnviroLinks for more GH BEO news!