Developing Regional Roadmaps and City Pilots to End Open Burning of Waste

Open burning is common where waste collection and disposal services are limited or unreliable. Globally, 41% of people dispose of their waste in an uncontrolled fashion, including 14% who rely primarily on open burning. Thick plumes of smoke from burning waste release toxic pollutants into the air, soil, and water, degrading air quality, harming health, and fueling climate change.  

The human costs of open burning are particularly severe. Communities living near dumpsites and waste workers are hit hardest, facing daily exposure to toxic smoke without adequate protection or medical care. It is estimated that exposure to PM2.5 from open burning of solid waste causes at least 270,000 premature deaths in the world every year. The pollutants these communities ingest can cause upper respiratory infections, skin and eye irritation, and long-term immunological, reproductive, and developmental health problems. The impact is so severe that schools in countries such as the Maldives and Pakistan have been forced to close due to heavy smoke from open waste burning at nearby dumpsites. 

This is not solely a local problem, but a global one. Open burning accounts for roughly 11% of global black carbon emissions and produces substantial amounts of methane and other short-lived climate pollutants. Yet, countries often struggle to allocate sufficient resources in national and municipal budgets to waste management, leaving the sector underfunded. Global support is also scarce, with only 0.41% of global official development finance committed to the sector between 2018 and 2021.   

Tackling open burning offers governments a dual opportunity: improving public health and air quality while unlocking a vast economic potential. In Africa, for example, nearly 80% of municipal solid waste in cities is recyclable—representing an $8 billion annual market and a pathway to cleaner air, safer jobs, and a thriving circular economy.   

Engagement at regional level reflects growing political support for waste management  

Africa Roadmap to End Open Waste Burning by 2040 

The project supported the development of the Africa Roadmap to End Open Waste Burning by 2040, a landmark framework calling for coordinated action across the continent. The Roadmap—endorsed by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in July 2025—sets out concrete regional and national actions to end open burning, ensuring that informal waste workers are included in both decision-making and final solutions. 

At a side session during the AMCEN meeting, findings from the Kisumu City Action Plan, developed by Practical Action in partnership with the Kisumu City Government, were presented to ministers and technical experts. This ensured that the Africa Roadmap was rooted in practical experience and scientific evidence, and established linkages between national ambition and city-level delivery.  

Earlier in the process, an in-person consultation workshop brought together national governments, local authorities, financial institutions, and waste picker organizations from 12 African countries, providing a diverse regional forum to exchange lessons and identify priority actions. The participants defined the short-, medium- and long-term milestones for implementation, including setting national targets to enable local governments to translate national acts into local laws. The workshop included a finance panel, a presentation from Kenya National Waste Pickers Welfare Association, emphasising the importance of inclusion in all elements of integrated waste management systems and UNEP Africa who have pioneered action towards ending open burning regionally.  

Kathmandu Declaration  

In Asia, the project supported the adoption of the Kathmandu Declaration at the South Asia Regional Policy Dialogue in Kathmandu in September 2025, through which countries across South Asia committed to eliminating open burning of waste by integrating it into broader waste management, climate, air pollution and health policies, strengthening municipal enforcement, and engaging informal waste workers. The Declaration emphasizes the need for evidenced-based action, calling for data-driven decision-making, including baseline waste inventories and MRV systems. This commitment reflects both the human and environmental stakes of open burning, linking improved public health and cleaner air to practical, policy-driven solutions.  

Alongside the Declaration and a regional policy dialogue to transform action to end open waste burning in ASEAN in December 2024 in Lao PDR, a Regional Roadmap for Asia was validated. National and local governments, mayors, NGOs, and civil society contributed on-the-ground perspectives, highlighting policy gaps, enforcement challenges, and priority actions—especially the need for stronger institutional coordination, monitoring systems, and financing mechanisms. The validated Roadmap strengthens political will, encourages harmonized regional action, and provides a practical framework to guide national strategies, regional collaboration, and the mobilization of technical and financial resources.  

Pilot cities show potential for progress on mitigating open waste burning 

Kenya  

Kisumu, a city in Western Kenya, served as the pilot city for the project in Africa. Building on the implementer, Practical Action’s, trusted relationship with the City and County Government, a series of sessions including representatives from government departments, waste pickers, businesses, schools, and markets culminated in the creation of a City Action Plan, putting forth a cohesive strategy to address the open burning of waste in Kisumu.  

Following the pilot, participants voluntarily established follow-up mechanisms and a multi-agency Steering Committee in Thinadhoo city to review and validate a draft waste management action plan, ensuring local voices and civil society inputs were incorporated. Early results show alignment of island-level action plans prioritizing the segregation of waste by source and on-island composting with the regional strategy focusing on cost-effective and low emission transport logistics, handling at a transfer station, and treatment at a waste-to-energy facility already installed in Addu city. 

New global study shows trends in open burning  

In line with the project’s objectives, UN-Habitat conducted the first comprehensive global study to assess the scale and impacts of open waste burning. The study found that open waste burning is widespread in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where up to 70% of waste remains uncollected. It contributes 280–400 Mt CO₂-eq annually, making it a major source of black carbon and PM₂.₅ emissions, and is driven by gaps in collection services, weak enforcement, and low public awareness. The research also showed that factors such as urban density, waste composition, and service coverage strongly influence burning intensity and emissions.  

These findings directly informed regional roadmaps to end open waste burning in Africa and Asia and guided city-level pilots in Kisumu, Vientiane, and the Maldives. Globally, the data provides a robust foundation for evidence-based interventions, supporting target setting, policy design, and integration of emission reductions from waste burning into NDCs and broader climate and waste strategies.  

Embedding open waste burning into broader national agendas 

The overarching priority moving forward is policy harmonization to embed open waste burning elimination into existing frameworks, including NDCs, air quality plans, and broader waste management and circular economy strategies. This approach emphasizes connecting waste interventions with related sectors such as air pollution, public health, and climate action to attract financing and support implementation. Sustained progress will require continued political commitment, strengthened data collection, multi-stakeholder coordination, and inclusive approaches that integrate informal workers, civil society, and the private sector.