Biowaste innovations and potential for creation of decent labor

The creation of social and economic dynamics that provide and protect dignified livelihoods is a prerequisite to a resilient food system. Fundamental to this is the promotion of equitable gender relationships. In the framework of the RUNRES project, ETH Zurich doctoral student Mélanie Surchat seeks to understand, from the workers’ perspective, the potential of the biowaste economy to create decent work opportunities (especially for youth and women). For her work, Biowaste Innovations and Potential for Creation of Decent Labor in Rwanda, she recently spent three months in Kamonyi, Rwanda. She utilized a mixed methodological approach with techniques that range from traditional surveys to more qualitative approaches such as participant observation and photovoice techniques. With her work, Mélanie is providing RUNRES with very important insights into often ignored impacts associated with the circular bioeconomy.

Division of labor

Finding a job in rural Rwanda is challenging, as the availability of jobs is low and the nature of most jobs requires physical strength (construction, farming, digging new roads). For most of these jobs, men are preferred to their female counterparts, as they are perceived to have more physical strength. In addition, women are expected to take care of children and the household, and, thus, have less time to search for an employment.

The advantage of the biowaste innovations is that there are specific tasks that are perceived as “female” because they require delicateness, patience, or bending for long hours (sorting waste, cleaning, peeling cassava) and hence, women are employed for these tasks.

On compost production sites, labor divisions are clearly based on gender. Women are mostly responsible for waste sorting, as they are perceived as “more patient” and “capable of doing one single task for long hours,” as mentioned in the interviews. Men, on the other hand, are said to “perform better on tasks requiring physical strength.” The high amount of labor required shows the complexity of valorizing waste without a proper municipal waste sorting strategy that encourages waste segregation at the household level.

Single mothers

Surprisingly, 30% of the female workers surveyed answered they were “single mothers” (8 out of 27). Potential explanations were investigated, and it appeared from the interviews that the precariousness of single mothers plays a role. In a traditional Rwandan family, the husband carries the “breadwinner responsibility” and he has to cover the important costs for the family such as paying rent and paying the school fees for the children. In the case of single mothers, they have to bear the traditional responsibilities of both women (mostly care and small daily expenses) and men (large expenses). Therefore, accessing a cash-generating job for single mothers, whatever the nature of the job, is a matter of survival. The local waste innovation operators also think that this might be the reason why single mothers are over-represented in the biowaste economy.

Even though the biowaste innovation jobs can be considered, from a Western perspective, as highly unattractive jobs, they represent a stable source of income for the employees and their families. The possibility for workers to make some savings can infer that the job allows to slowly lift oneself out of poverty. In addition, from the survey addressing worker satisfaction, most of the workers are rather satisfied, especially as they mostly have a low education level. Many workers were grateful for their situation and they spoke about the job as a temporary stage, a bridge to a better life: “the bad job brings the good one” (male worker, MAGGOT Innovation Site).