______UNEP ROUNDTABLE MINUTES
05 DECEMBER 2014
ITEM AGENDA ITEM ACTION Attendees: See the attached list RESPONSIBILLIT Y 1. OPENING REMARKS AND WELCOME Ms Thembelihle The Director of Agro-processing Ms Thembelihle Ndukwana Ndukwana opened the meeting and welcomed everyone present. She opened the platform for introduction of members present to a meeting. 2. APOLOGIES : Mapula Tshangela: DEA Qaphile Gcwanse – Ekurhuleni Municipality Cecilia Njenga - UNEP Unati Speirs- the dti ( to join later) Cynthia Moyo – the dti Thierry Revert- SAOSO Caiphus Chauke- Ekurhuleni Municipality Bheki Dlamini- the dti
3. FINALISATION OF THE AGENDA:
Marvelous adopted the agenda
1 4. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING: All They were adopted as a true reflection of our past meeting.
5. MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES OF LAST MEETING: All None
6. FEEDBACK ON THE MUNICIPALITY MEETINGS: Ms Thembelihle Thembelihle explained to the meeting that initially the plan was Ndukwana to work with 2 identified municipalities (Tshwane & Joburg) to pilot programme. Later, it was decided to include Ekurhuleni municipality. She explained that UN has adopted South Africa to do the food waste prevention and reduction pilot study.
She further explained the “Think Eat Save South Africa pilot project between SA & UK” with the intention to take a study tour to UK and learn how they do to reduce food waste. All the municipalities were requested to nominate 2 or 3 people to participate on the programme. The municipalities were requested to cover their own travelling costs. It was indicated that after the study tour the technical team will be expected to develop a strategy document . She indicated that the dti, SALGA, CSIR and DEA convened the follow up meetings with the 3 identified municipalities. The outcome of the meeting were summarised as follows:- All the municipalities expressed their commitment to the
2 initiative, It was suggested that the study should focus on the whole food loss value chain rather than only household loses, because the household losses only accounts for 5% of the food waste in SA according to the study done by CSIR. A suggestion was also that this could be done on a phased approach, starting with the ones that have a significant % of food loss On the study tour, the City of Joburg and City of Tshwane agreed in principle to fund the trip for their officials who will be attending the study tour, both municipality however indicated that they would have appreciated if UNEP could fund the trip Ekurhuleni municipality expressed its unhappiness on how the UNEP is handling this in terms of funding, and the content of the project and what value will this exercise yield for SA, they reiterated that if they are being invited to this programme, UNEP should fund the whole programme The municipalities accepted the suggested dates for the tour (end Feb/beginning of March) It was however requested that the launch should be shifted to a later date and not May because if the president launches this, it will create the expectation from the people which the municipality will not be able to meet.
3 7. FOOD WASTE PRESENTATION Suzan presented household food waste study, a comment from Victor Thindisi, was that the research need to be synchronised to create consistency on standardisation of terminologies and should also include post-harvest farmers looking at the return of investment and economic implications they inflict.
Suzan explained that the research is on-going, doing characterization with Joburg municipality and looking at alternative technologies. It was explained that the 2001 food waste study didn’t respond to different technologies to have wider spectrum. 8. JOBURG MUNICIPALITY PRESENTATION Mr. Simphiwe Mr. Simphiwe Mbuli presented the Joburg food waste and pick Mbuli it up scenario.
QUESTIONS raised : If there were any Bio-gas study that the municipality is working on? What motivated them to focus more on food waste from dailies?
It was explained that the municipality is working with University of Johannesburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal on the bio-gas study and are
4 also working at separation at source which mostly happen at depo’s which will include household at the second phase.
Henry also shared that IDZ, IDC, Department of Energy, CSIR and other stakeholders are working on couple of initiatives around food waste and Bio-gas that is happening slowly. It was suggested to consolidate work done in the country with the tabled programme.
9. 8.2 RE-ENERGISE AFRICA PRESENTATION- TARIK HOPPENER The presentation was done. Concerns were raised and are as follows: What is the costing of the Bio-digester tank and if the presenter can provide a rough figure? If the presenter have any Bio-digestor that they have developed in South Africa/ African countries?
Tarik explained that the Bio- digestor tank costing is determined by the diameter, height and the volume. He further indicated that they do not have any Bio-digester in south Africa at the moment. 10. UPDATE ON THINK EAT SAVE SOUTH AFRICA PILOT PROJECT BETWEEN SA AND UK Ms Unati Speirs provided the background of the food waste and explained that it has been constituted as a programme. She explained that UK will fund the study with 50 000US dollar
5 and the project will last for 12 months including the interpretation of the results and implementation of the project.
She suggested that the 2 initially identified municipalities i.e. Tshwane & Joburg Municipality will pilot the programme and Ekurhuleni will have an observer status. The reason being, not to burden the study with a lot of information that might not be relevant. She furthermore explained that if the Ekurhuleni municipality is ready, it can join, the programme is open.
Unati mentioned that the programme will require higher level delegation and someone who will take decisions and implementation. She furthermore explained that the launch will be an information sharing platform about food waste programme.
Ms. Thembelihle Ndukwana, presented the UK presentation that was sent from UNEP offices. A consensus was reached to add 2 months in between the planned activity schedule. The study will focus more on industrial and household level; The date for the study tour is 16-20 February 2015
ACTION PLAN Prepare documents for UK trips (Government departments, municipalities).
6 Municipalities to prepare for the tour based on the activities proposed for the tour and also To target a public holiday for Presidential launch or a well-known day e.g. the World Environmental Day the dti to send bilateral with DEA (Malcolm) about the programme and request for a permanent representative to the programme SALGA to advise on geographical areas and include more municipalities to observe the programme 6.SALGA to advise on meeting dates for all the municipalities and inform the dti to introduce the food waste programme the dti to check with DEA (Malcom) about the 06/07 March Summit. the dti to check with DEA for South African City network contact details the dti to send the UNEP slide with the activities for the tour
11. WAYFORWARD: ALL UNEP round table next meeting invitation will be sent out. 12. CLOSURE The meeting adjourned
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