Accelerating the adoption of circular sanitation demonstration systems for improved health outcomes (ACTUATE)

Actuate将在加纳和尼日利亚共同提供两个以社区为基础的试点示范生物能源系统，这两个系统将支持加速采用安全的循环水经济，将废物、人类健康和能源、粮食和土壤安全连接起来。它将从目前由兰开斯特全球气候变化框架基金资助的与西非合作伙伴的投资组合中产生更大的变革影响，并提供实际证据，表明与社区、社区内和社区合作将为撒哈拉以南非洲的废物管理提供最可持续的解决方案。非洲每天产生数千吨固体废物，其中大部分最终进入露天垃圾场和湿地，污染地表水和地下水，并对健康构成重大危害。浪费在文化上被视为‘不在我的后院(NIMBY)’的问题。如果真的存在的话，将浪费视为一种在我的后院取悦(PIMBY)的理念还处于初级阶段。大多数人不知道，因此低估了废物的能源、粮食生产和土壤肥沃潜力。他们也没有意识到看不见的敌人的健康危险，比如饮用水和管理不善的废物造成的食物污染。迫切需要表明，小规模、离网的生物能源系统确实有效，它们是可持续的，能够为废物管理、发电、粮食和土壤安全提供解决方案，并改善城市/非正规和农村社区人民的健康和福祉。示范试点将包括收集废旧材料，通过AD持续加工，以及实现产品价值。它们将被整合到两个不同的社区环境中：一个是与加纳阿克拉的一所社区学校有关的小型家庭系统，另一个是尼日利亚UniBen的一个更大的大学校园活动。示范试点的证据将使尼日利亚和加纳的潜在投资者和政策制定者拥有技术和社会证据，并相信这些系统可以在实验室以外的地方工作。它们代表着我们的合作伙伴组织(CGE Nigia、UNiBen、CSIR和LU加纳)通过该领域的企业家领导力在商业增长机会方面领先的第一步，也是至关重要的一步。Actuate的雄心、目标和工作计划源于兰开斯特通过GCRF资助的几个研究和能力建设项目与撒哈拉以南非洲的研究人员和研究用户的深入接触。非洲是兰开斯特大学的战略重点，兰开斯特大学目前是唯一一所在非洲大陆设有校区的英国大学。除了我们在加纳和尼日利亚建立的长期合作伙伴关系外，兰开斯特大学还在生态创新方面发展了全国领先地位-支持商业增长和环境的创新。它有能力将高质量的研究转化为“现实世界的影响”，兰开斯特的双奖全球生态创新中心(CGE)http://www.globalecoinnovation.org就证明了这一点。专家咨询小组已经证明，生态创新可以为经济和环境带来积极的好处，并从根本上支持最终用户驱动的研究的需要。我们对非洲的生态创新愿景的核心是需要促进中长期经济增长，既能适应未来气候，又能在可能的情况下减轻环境变化的影响。

ACTUATE will co-deliver two community-based pilot demonstration bioenergy systems in Ghana and Nigeria that will support an accelerated uptake of a safe circular water economy connecting waste, human health and energy, food and soil security. It will to grow transformational impact from the current Lancaster GCRF funded portfolio with West African partners and provide practical evidence that working with, in and for communities will deliver the most sustainable solutions for waste management in sub-Saharan Africa.Africa generates thousands of tons of solid waste daily, most of which ends up in open dumps and wetlands, contaminating surface and ground water and posing major health hazards. Waste is culturally seen 'not in my backyard (NIMBY)' issue. The mindset of considering waste as a 'please in my backyard (PIMBY) philosophy is at its infancy, if exists at all. Most people do not know, hence undervalue, the energy, food production and soil enrichment potential of waste. They also are unaware of the health danger of invisible enemies such as drinking water and food contamination from poorly managed waste. There is a critical need to show that small scale, off-grid bioenergy systems do work, that they are sustainable and are capable of delivering solutions to waste management, power generation, food and soil security and improve people's health and well-being in peri-urban/informal and rural communities. The demonstrator pilots will encompass the collection of waste materials, their sustained processing through AD and the realisation of product values. They will be integrated into 2 distinct community-based settings: a small, domestic system associated with a community school in Accra, Ghana and a larger university campus-based activity in UniBen, Nigeria. Evidence from the demonstration pilots will enable potential investors and policy makers in both Nigeria and Ghana to have the technical and social evidence and confidence that these systems can work in situ beyond the laboratory. They represent the first and vital step for our partner organisations (CGE Nigeria, UNiBen, CSIR and LU Ghana) to take a lead in commercially growing business opportunities through entrepreneurial leadership in this domain.The ambition, objectives and workplan for ACTUATE emerge from Lancaster's deep engagement with researchers and research users in sub-Saharan Africa through several GCRF-funded research and capacity-building projects. Africa is a strategic priority for Lancaster which is currently the only UK University to have a campus on the continent. In addition to our long-standing partnership building in Ghana and Nigeria, Lancaster University has grown national leadership in eco-innovation - innovation supporting both business growth and the environment. It has the capacity to translate high quality research into "real world impacts" as demonstrated by Lancaster's double award-winning Centre for Global Eco-innovation (CGE) http://www.globalecoinnovation.org . CGE has demonstrated that eco-innovation can deliver positive benefits to both the economy and the environment and is fundamentally underpinned by the need for end-user driven research. At the heart of our eco-innovation vision for Africa is the needs to promote medium-to-long term economic growth that is both resilient to future climate and where possible able to mitigate the impact of environmental change.