SKR municipal waste management 2023-2027

Key results: - Selection of 6 pilot municipalities through transparent and equitable process - Operationalization of regional waste management plan through development of costed and implementable waste management action plans which were subsequently adopted by municipal councils in the two regions (not only for the pilot municipalities) - Development of landfill fire prevention guidelines, which have the potential to address this widespread and recurring challenge in the country - Assessment of municipal capacities on waste, which is a prerequisite for more targeted capacity-building activities, to follow in the next period Cross-cutting results: SKR reported that they leveraged synergies with another Sida-funded project in the country to fund technical documentation for the closure of a non-compliant landfill used by the municipality of Ohrid, which hosts an area protected under UNESCO for its natural and cultural value, as well as a national park, which are all impacted by the hazardous landfill. Securing funding for the project is the next step, which SALAR will also facilitate, together with UNDP. General overview: Component 1 of the project focuses on improving waste management service quality and coverage primarily in 6 pilot municipalities in these two regions. Sida's assessment is that SKR ran a transparent and objective evaluation of all municipal applicants, and while the quality of applications was the primary criterion, SKR also strove to include a good mix of urban and rural municipalities, while minding also ethnically balanced representation, which is relevant from a conflict mitigation perspective. This process resulted in the selection of 6 pilot municipalities (Prilep, Bitola, Novaci, Ohrid, Kichevo and Plasnica). While these municipalities will benefit from direct close support from the project, SKR managed to also include the remaining 9 non-pilot municipalities that comprise the region, which would also receive support, albeit at a less intensive level. During the first implementation year, SKR's assistance to municipalities in the two planning regions to operationalize the regional waste management plan, helped bring it down at the municipal level through the development and adoption of local waste management action plans. Sida's view is that this work has helped tackle a persistent challenge of policy documents developed in North Macedonia, which are frequently extensive and unmanageable, top-down prepared and inadequately account for local needs and capacities for implementation. This was also the case with the current version of the regional waste management plan for the Pelagonija and South-West regions. SKR assisted municipalities in first developing a simplified operational version of the regional waste management plan, which was a bridging tool for then preparing the municipal waste management plans, thus rendering the regional plan actionable. The actions defined in the municipal plans were also costed, which is expected to allow municipalities to better budget waste management-related expenses and understand how to reach sustainable fee collection levels, as well as potentially access external sources of funding. Existing municipal waste collection fees have in some cases not been raised for decades, leading to unsustainable waste management systems at the local level. The Macedonian Ministry for Environment and Physical Planning, together with the Regulatory Commission for Energy, Water and Waste Management Services are working on centrally developing a tariff model that will solve this problem, which has proven to be politically intractable for municipal administrations in the past. Sida assesses that the adoption of the waste management plans by the local decisionmaking body - the municipal councils, further strengthens local ownership over the project results. Another key challenge that was addressed by the project was a frequent (if not universal) absence of dedicated municipal cross-departmental working groups on waste. With SKR's aid, and with the secured commitment by mayors and municipal councils, all targeted municipalities formed these groups, which were tasked with covering the various aspects of the process (finance, urban planning, environmental protection and local economic development). As waste management is handled by public utility companies at the local level, they were also represented in these groups. While implementation of the plans will provide insight into the effectiveness of these bodies, Sida assesses that it does demonstrate movement in the right direction. Under Component 2, which aims to strengthen the role of the Association of Local Self-Governments (ZELS, the Macedonian countepart to the Swedish SKR), SKR facilitated the development of several knowledge products, which ZELS has been tasked with disseminating to municipalities beyond the initial two targeted planning regions. These include the abovementioned municipal capacity assessment, a so-called political economy analysis, which identifies the structural barriers to improving the waste management system, both at the national, regional and local level, a toolset for landfill fire prevention, which has been a recurring issue throughout the country, contributing to increased pollution and posing a threat to public safety, and finally a local action planning roadmap, which should facilitate the development of local waste management action plans throughout the country. ZELS, through its project-funded experts on waste management and gender, worked on integrating gender considerations into the processes of developing local action plans. Gender-specific trainings were delivered to representatives from the pilot municipalities, and a ToR for a Swedish gender expert, to be engaged during the second project year was prepared. As a next step, a comprehensive capacity development programme will be developed and agreed with the partner municipalities. Results and lessons learned from the delivery of these initiatives will be documented and made publicly available, possibly through integrating into the general training program of ZELS, for the use of a wider group of municipalities. Sida's assessment is that it is too early to analyze the results of these developments. A lot of groundwork was done to prepare for implementation, however this is expected to start bearing fruit during the second project year. While the project announces its intention to upload these documents to ZELS's website, it should be made clearer how municipalities will be stimulated to make use of the knowledge products, and how ZELS will actively manage and coordinate this process, with a view to running a sustainable and continuing training programme for its constituents. Under Component 3, dealing with national level institutions such as the Ministry for Environment and Physical Planning (MoEPP), responsible for waste at the central level, and the Ministry for Local Self-Government (MLSG), which oversees and facilitates intermunicipal cooperation, limited progress has been achieved. While MoEPP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the project, it has not meaningfully engaged in project implementation yet. One issue that was highlighted during the first year is the inertia of the Regional Development Centers (RDC) - a body tasked with overseeing the waste management system at the regional level. SKR is in discussions with MoEPP and MLSG to potentially provide bridging funding to activate this function at the RDCs until the central tariff model is developed, which should then provide a revenue stream to provide long-term sustainability. The main thrust of this component is to strengthen the coordination axis from the central, through to the regional and local levels. To this end, SKR has communicated an ambition to help reactivate the regional municipal boards on waste, which should provide impetus to the process of establishing a regional waste management public enterprise in the Pelagonija and South-West regions. The regional enterprise will be tasked with transporting the waste from transfer stations to the regional landfill, which will be situated in one of the six pilot municipalities - Novaci.

The overall goal to which the proposed project will contribute is to improve municipal waste management services in North Macedonia with a view to full compliance with EU standards, thus improving environmental sustainability and quality of life for all inhabitants. At local level, the main focus will be to work with selected pilot municipalities, local utilities and inhabitants on planning and delivery of waste services in line with EU guidance and the new national legislation and strategic plan on waste. At the level of local government as a whole, the project will work with ZELS to disseminate lessons learned to a wider group of municipalities and to integrate the gender perspective into local waste management policy and planning. At national level, the project will work principally with the Ministry for Environment and Physical Planning and the Ministry for Local Self-Government to enhance multi-level dialogue and coordination in waste management and to promote inter-municipal cooperation among all municipalities in the pilot regions. The main expected outcomes are: 1. Partner municipalities have improved waste management planning practices and strengthened their ability to deliver inclusive and sustainable waste management services. 2. Local self-governments have strengthened their capacities for more inclusive and sustainable waste management services and gender mainstreaming. 3. Functional multi-level dialogue and coordination contributes to more effective implementation of the legal framework. The proposed project is structured into three main components: 1. Support to selected municipalities 2. Capacity development through the local government association 3. Multilevel dialogue and coordination