“China Integrated Waste Management (IWM)” final Evaluation and Learning Exercise emphasises the importance of knowledge sharing to ensure continuous project impact 

IMAGE: © GIZ CHINA 

The project “China Integrated Waste Management” (China IWM for short) aims to transform the solid waste management sector in Chinese cities into a low-carbon, climate-friendly sector that offers attractive investment and participation opportunities to businesses and the financial sector.  

AMBERO and Oxford Policy Management undertook a final Evaluation and Learning Exercise (ELE) on the progress of the project.  

Below are some key findings of the ELE:  

• The project is on track to achieving transformational change: it clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of IWM as a mitigation solution with strong buy-in from the Project Partners and the pilot cities’ governments.  

• The project started causing a catalytic effect by raising the awareness of citizens and the interest of the private sector in IWM, supporting the change of enabling regulations and policies, and obtaining written commitment from an additional group of 11 cities to use the project-backed MRV system and IWM best practices. Because of this enabling environment, the project is likely to contribute to additional, long-term and sustained GHG savings in the medium/long-term. 

• Sharing project resources and insights with other development partners can encourage continued impact and synergies. Several projects that have similar objectives are ongoing or just starting at the time of the final ELE. There is great value in sharing insights and tools with such projects to enable continued impact and encourage synergies. For example, project-developed tools and conceptual knowledge were shared with China’s World Bank plastic waste reduction project, including Xi’an as a focus city.  

• There are significant opportunities to continue replicating the project approach in other industries to measure and manage GHG emissions. 

Following the main findings and recommendations of the ELE, the TSU and the project have compiled a management response to address the key points that were raised.  

The management response and the final ELE report are available in the Knowledge & Learning Hub.