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 e-waste 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.