Publication:
The Gambia Circular Economy Diagnostic

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (15.88 MB)
318 downloads
English Text (33.25 KB)
42 downloads
Published
2025-01-07
ISSN
Date
2025-01-07
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report identifies circular economy (CE) opportunities in the tourism sector in Cabo Verde, The Gambia, and Säo Tomé & Principe. The project aims to enhance circularity by advocating for policy changes, phasing out single-use plastics (SUP), and fostering innovative infrastructure and financing solutions. It focuses on boosting business models for SMEs that offer alternatives to SUPs or goods and services based on CE principles. The report presents potential opportunities to improve resource use efficiency and circularity, considering the local geographic and economic context in The Gambia. It includes comprehensive firm audits within the tourism sector and an extensive market assessment to determine the scope and size of CE products. Additionally, the report showcases the outcomes of the Multi-Criteria Analysis (NICA), which prioritizes potential business cases for further evaluation of their financial and technical feasibility.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2025. The Gambia Circular Economy Diagnostic. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42629 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Cabo Verde Circular Economy Diagnostic, September 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-07) World Bank
    This report identifies circular economy (CE) opportunities in the tourism sector in Cabo Verde, The Gambia, and Säo Tomé & Principe. The project focuses on enhancing circularity by advocating for policy changes, phasing out single-use plastics (SUP), and promoting innovative infrastructure and sustainable financing solutions. The Cabo Verde report provides a thorough diagnostic to identify opportunities and gaps within key infrastructure systems, including materials, waste, energy, and water, tailored to Cabo Verde's unique geographic and economic context. It includes firm audits and an extensive market assessment to determine the scope and size of CE products within the tourism industry. The report also outlines the results of the Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) to prioritize prospective business cases for further evaluation of their financial and technical viability. Additionally, it presents an overview of the Institutional & Regulatory Analysis and Roadmap, highlighting key market opportunities such as in-vessel composting, large water dispensers, rooftop solar PV, and greywater recycling. The findings emphasize the potential for CE interventions to foster economic growth, environmental sustainability, and resilience in Cabo Verde's tourism sector.
  • Publication
    Urban and Rural Municipal Solid Waste in China and the Circular Economy
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-04) World Bank Group
    This paper lists several opportunities for China to advance MSW policies and practices. In addition to building on lessons learned from countries with decades of experience in implementing separation at source programs, including lessons on dealing with the informal sector, China’s extended responsibility systems (EPR) for different waste streams including packaging waste could be tested locally and if successful, could then be prioritized. EPR schemes could be used to introduce incentives for eco-design, create a sustainable production and consumption pattern, reduce landfilling and develop recycling and recovery channels. China could also more comprehensively test the regional approach for service delivery especially for underserved county and rural areas. There is an opportunity to deepen urban-rural integration enhance economies of scale, and improve efficiency through regional integration in waste service provision. This would not only improve the quality of service provision but support financial sustainability and help offset some of the increased financial costs for circularity. Ensuring sustainable operational financing is important to provide for public-private partnerships, a stated priority of the government; sustain earlier and current investments; and permit future development of facilities.
  • Publication
    The Role of Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes for Packaging towards Circular Economies in APEC
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-01) World Bank
    The enormous amount of plastic waste – especially litter from plastic packaging – that leaks into the natural environment each year is a global concern with severe environmental consequences, particularly for marine life and human health. Limitations in waste collection and waste treatment systems exacerbate the issue. Ensuring proper collection and management of plastic packaging waste is critical for building a reuse and recycling system that enables a circular economy (CE). However, despite the efforts of APEC members, the recycling rate of post-consumption plasticpackaging remains relatively low in most APEC member economies. This report combines lessons learned from global case studies with insights from APEC membersto outline a series of recommendations for accelerating EPR implementation and operationalization in APEC member economies.
  • Publication
    The Circular Plastics Economy in Mozambique
    (Washington, DC, 2021) World Bank
    The World Bank Group developed the Mozambique problue program (MozAzul) to provide comprehensive technical assistance to the Government of Mozambique on the blue economy agenda. The objective of the MozAzul program is to strengthen the knowledge base on the sustainable blue economy development in Mozambique, and under pillar 2, specifically on marine litter. This study is intended to inform the government’s upcoming national action plan to combat marine litter as well as intensify engagement with stakeholders, including innovators and around new business models. It is mainly concerned with assessing the circular economy opportunities in Mozambique as they relate to marine plastics litter. The assignment forming the basis of this study has set its parameters on the upstream (pre-waste) opportunities for plastics circularity, leveraging the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s ReSOLVE framework to map out the various levers that organizations may employ in their transition towards improved material efficiency. The methodology leverages extensive desk research, the collection of primary data through interviews with relevant stakeholders located in Mozambique, and interviews with key stakeholders who can provide insight on the circular opportunities and existing business models practiced in Mozambique. The methodology also leverages real-time findings concurrently being developed by local and international experts, and organizations conducting parallel studies (i.e. IUCN). As of the writing of this report, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to hamper Mozambique’s economy and health sectors. As a result of the ongoing pandemic, this report is decidedly both more thorough in explaining the new concepts and approaches leading to the explanation of circular economy opportunities in Mozambique, and simultaneously less reliant on local stakeholder interviews than initially intended.
  • Publication
    Sierra Leone Circular Economy in Plastics for Sustainable Tourism and Economic Diversification
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-10) World Bank
    Increasing plastic pollution in Sierra Leone threatens not only the public health or the local economy, but also the national tourism sector. The volume of plastic waste visible on beaches in the Western Area of Sierra Leone has made plastic pollution a significant problem. Hotels reported that up to 5 percent of staff salaries are intended for daily beach cleaning[2]. Of the approximately 130,000 tons of plastic waste that is generated each year, only about 7,200 tons are properly recycled by domestic companies. Over the recent years plastic pollution became a significant problem, increasing hotel costs, hampering transportation, and reducing the appeal of beaches. Sierra Leone’s government continues in its efforts to strengthen tourism security and safety as well as tourism profitability for the country. However, the tourism sector presents the double challenge of requiring an environment free of plastic pollution while being itself a generator of consumer plastic waste. Recognizing the need for major improvements in the country’s quality of life through natural conservation and beautification, Sierra Leone is making efforts to confront the growing problem of plastic pollution from both land-based and marine-based sources. Recognizing these challenges, the Ministry of Finance, with support from the World Bank, is implementing the Sierra Leone Economic Diversification Project (SLEDP). It is a five-year project implemented by the Government of Sierra Leone with a $40 million grant support from the World Bank. The main implementing ministries of the project are the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The SLEDP project aims, to improve the business environment and to create opportunities for increased business in the plastics circular economy and to address risks to tourism and other sectors posed by improperly managed plastic waste. The current study aimed to support the national and local governments to foster sustainable industrial growth and sustainable tourism by implementing circular economy strategies to curb the use of plastic products in Sierra Leone. A variety of methods were used to identify and compile data for this study, including a review of the literature, targeted data collection, semi-structured interviews, entrepreneurial discovery workshops and consultations with public private sector representatives. The study required consideration of policies and regulations currently in place in Sierra Leone. The present study consists of several parts, the first of which provides an in-depth look at the plastics sector, with a particular focus on the use of plastics in the tourism sector. The aim was to assess the use of plastics in the tourism sector, to identify opportunities to minimize plastic waste from the sector, and to provide guidelines for tourism stakeholders to reduce single-use plastics. A second part of the study examined the enabling environment for circularity in Sierra Leone that needs improvement to realize the identified potential in the medium term.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Guinea-Bissau Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-23) World Bank Group
    Guinea-Bissau is endowed with a wealth of natural resources, with the highest natural capital per capita in West Africa (US3,874 dollars per capita), which could be leveraged for sustainable and resilient growth. However, Guinea-Bissau faces significant development hurdles, such as high poverty rates, political instability, and economic challenges, including an over-reliance on cashew nuts. Rural poverty has increased, and the nation's infrastructure, education, and health care systems are underdeveloped. Climate change poses a severe threat, potentially impacting agriculture, fisheries, and infrastructure. Without adaptation, it could lead to a significant cut in real GDP per capita (minus 7.3 percent by 2050) and increase in poverty (with up to over 200,000 additional poor by 2050, that is, 5 percent of the expected population, in the worst scenario). The country's low greenhouse gas emissions are expected to rise, mainly due to agriculture and land-use changes, with deforestation being a major contributing factor. Although Guinea-Bissau is a low emitter, it has high mitigation ambitions, targeting a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The Nationally Determined Contribution outlines significant climate actions, with initiatives focused on forest conservation, sustainable agriculture, and community development. However, the country's political instability, institutional weaknesses, and limited financial resources pose challenges to implementing these climate commitments, which depend heavily on external funding. The financial sector's underdevelopment and vulnerability to external shocks limit its ability to support green investments, though reforms could enhance resilience. Guinea-Bissau must consider its climate financing as development financing and vice-versa, engage the private sector, and integrate climate goals with national development plans to ensure a sustainable future. Concessional climate financing is vital due to the underdeveloped financial sector and the government’s limited borrowing capacity. Addressing Guinea-Bissau's vulnerability to climate change and its structural issues requires a cohesive approach that integrates development and climate strategies. This could involve improving governance, diversifying the economy, protecting natural capital, developing human capital, and investing in sustainable agriculture and infrastructure. The transition to a more sustainable and inclusive development pathway that supports economic growth is possible, but requires focusing on key strategic sectors, enhancing institutional capacity, and creating the conditions to mobilize finance. As a highly vulnerable country, there are myriad needs in the different sectors; however, to be more efficient and effective, Guinea-Bissau should prioritize actions in a few sectors, especially actions on biodiversity, agriculture, and social protection. Low carbon development, especially in energy and forestry sectors, could provide cost-efficient solutions and attract climate finance, including from the private sector, which will support the overall development agenda.
  • Publication
    Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-03) World Bank Group
    This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) on the Kyrgyz Republic aims to support the country’s development goals amid a changing climate. The CCDR considers two policy scenarios up to 2050: the business-as-usual (BAU) and high-growth scenarios. As it quantifies the likely impacts of climate change on the Kyrgyz economy between now and 2050, the report highlights key government actions to best prepare for and adapt to climate impacts (referred to as “with adaptation” measures), with a particular focus on the time horizon up to 2030. The CCDR also outlines a path to net zero emissions by 2050 (referred to as “with mitigation” measures, “decarbonization,” or, simply, “net zero 2050”), highlighting associated development co-benefits.
  • Publication
    Mongolia Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-22) World Bank Group
    Mongolia’s development prospects are uniquely challenged by both the impacts of climate change and the global shift toward a low-carbon economy. The country’s efforts toward decarbonization pose significant challenges given the structurally high-emission intensity of its economy. While challenging, climate action also presents Mongolia with opportunities to achieve important development benefits. The effects of climate risks and the shift away from coal will have diverse impacts across different regions, communities, and socioeconomic levels. The report assesses the critical interconnections between Mongolia’s development ambitions and climate change action and identifies ways to transition to a more economically diversified, inclusive, and resilient development path. It highlights key climate and transition risks affecting Mongolia’s future development and presents a pathway to enhance climate mitigation and adaptation. The report also makes a case for strengthening policies to enhance resilience to climate change and ensure a just transition, particularly for the most vulnerable. The report is structured as follows: section 1 gives introduction. Section 2 delves into the linkages between development and climate in Mongolia and presents model-based findings on the economic and poverty impacts of climate change under different scenarios. Section 3 covers four in-depth sectoral analyses. The first two mainly focus on adaptation to climate change in the agriculture and water sectors. The third considers prospects for the extraction sector, while the fourth sectoral analysis focuses on decarbonizing power and heat generation. Section 4 shifts the focus to how the government can boost resilience for climate-vulnerable populations. Section 5 outlines options for mobilizing private and public financing and private investments to support the green transition. Section 6 examines the existing institutional and governance structure for climate action and presents recommendations to improve its effectiveness, and section 7 concludes with a framework for prioritizing the policy actions outlined in this report.
  • Publication
    Comoros Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-18) World Bank Group
    The Union of the Comoros (The Comoros) has significant vulnerability to climate change-related risks but has considerable opportunities to strengthen preparedness and resilience against these challenges. According to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, the Comoros is the 29th-most vulnerable country to climate change and the 163rd most ready to adapt (out of 191). The Comoros archipelago is exposed to many natural hazards that adversely affect the country’s natural capital, people, and physical infrastructure. In 2014, the economic cost of climate-related disasters was estimated at 5.7 million dollars annually, equivalent to 9.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Between 2018 and 2023, as many as 11 tropical depressions or cyclones impacted the country, with Cyclone Kenneth causing the greatest damage, equivalent to 14 percent of GDP, resulting in total economic growth falling from 3.6 percent in 2018 to 1.9 percent in 2019. More than 345,000 people (40 percent of the population) were affected by the cyclone, with 185,000 people experiencing severe impacts and 12,000 people displaced. However, there is an opportunity for the country to grow more robust and shock-responsive, and to establish pre-positioned funding mechanisms to enhance future crisis response efforts. For the Comoros, adaptation and climate-resilient development are the key climate change focus areas, with the country projected to face 836 million dollars 2050 in additional costs due to climate-related impacts. Current plans to adapt to the impacts of climate change in the Comoros include efforts to improve water management, strengthen coastal protection, and develop climate-smart agriculture practices. Given the country’s reliance on its natural resource base for economic growth and mobility, protection of these resources from climate change will be essential for promoting resilient growth and development. In addition to growing the adaptive capacity of the country’s natural resource sectors, strategic economic diversification will be important to help minimize future climate impacts, and development activities will need to be undertaken in such a way as to attract low-carbon co-benefits. The Union of the Comoros is committed to addressing climate change through its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and national priorities. The country’s NDC (which was revised in 2021 for a ten-year horizon) sets ambitious targets, with a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent by 2030. The country also plans to significantly increase the share of renewable energy in its energy portfolio, reaching 33 MW by 2030. This will not only promote low-carbon development but also reduce the country’s dependency on imported oil and coal, which currently make up 95 percent of the energy mix. Additionally, the Comoros has declared its intention to increase CO2 removals by 47 percent by 2030, compared to BAU.
  • Publication
    Tajikistan Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-28) World Bank Group
    The Tajikistan Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores the impact of climate change and global decarbonization on Tajikistan’s development. It identifies key areas to enhance climate resilience and deepen decarbonization and outlines priority recommendations for a successful green transition in Tajikistan, requiring structural reforms, climate-conscious policies, and inclusive strategies for a resilient and sustainable future. Despite economic growth and poverty reduction over the past two decades, Tajikistan's reliance on natural resources and remittances has led to unsustainable development, depleting natural capital and limiting job creation. The government’s green transition plan focuses on renewable energy, promising energy security, economic growth, and regional electricity exports. However, further efforts are needed for a resilient development path, including a complementary reform program to bring significant economic benefits, climate adaptation, and low-carbon development that will benefit Tajikistan and Central Asia's electricity systems. Climate change poses significant risks, threatening water security, agricultural productivity, and infrastructure, potentially reducing GDP per capita by 5-6% by mid-century and pushing 100,000 people into poverty. Additional adaptation measures are crucial, focusing on water management, resilient landscapes, climate-smart agriculture, and disaster risk management. A low-carbon development pathway offers a more resilient and prosperous future, with near net-zero emissions in energy and waste sectors by 2050, boosting economic growth, and job creation and reducing air pollution. Achieving these goals requires substantial investments and institutional reforms to mobilize private capital and attract green foreign investment. Development partners can provide financial assistance, technical expertise, and capacity building.