Gender Dynamics Of E-waste Management Practices In Accra And Kumasi (Ghana)

ABSTRACT

E-waste management, a subcomponent of e-scrap management, has become a major global environmental issue. Studies conducted in Ghana have shown that e-waste management is a major livelihood for mostly underprivileged migrant male urban dwellers. However, none of these studies have examined the gender dynamics of ewaste management. This study therefore employs gender and development (GAD) analytical framework, through a mixed research approach to investigate the gender dynamics of e-waste management in Accra and Kumasi. This research observed a continuum of a formal-informal dichotomy in the e-waste industry. Significantly, the informal sector at one end of the chain engages in the collection and recycling for e-scrap to trade to formal manufacturing and exporting industries in both Accra and Kumasi for further processing and trading respectively. This transaction is carried through the middlemen/women, scrap dealers or the agents of these formal industries commencing a circuitry which transcends metropolitan, regional and indeed, national boundaries. Those receiving industries connects the e-waste industry in Ghana to local and foreign consumers across U.S.A, Russia, Asia, Europe and Canada. This study focusing on the informal e-waste management sector discovered 4 and 300 out of a total number of 5,000 e-waste managers working in Accra and Kumasi respectively were middle-women. The rest of the females left uncounted from the 5,000 workers provide ancillary services. Major causes of these gendered roles are attributable to physical, economic and socio-cultural determinants. Therefore, conscious efforts must be made by all stakeholders to minimise or remove these barriers to gendering e-waste management practice in Ghana.