tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-zambia-3576/articlesThe University of Zambia2020-03-24T14:18:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1213962020-03-24T14:18:29Z2020-03-24T14:18:29ZChina’s investments in Africa: a fresh lens offers more balanced insights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321879/original/file-20200320-22606-g9t3bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coverage of Chinese presence in Africa has been somewhat misleading</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The rise of China in Africa has triggered an <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/03/07/the-new-scramble-for-africa">ongoing debate</a> about whether Chinese capital is a barrier that entraps African governments in practices that hinder poverty reduction. </p>
<p>The most recent contribution to these debates is a book by a professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo22657847.html">Ching Kwan Lee</a>. The book is based on Lee’s ethnographic study in the copper and construction industries in Zambia. It interrogates Chinese state capital in relation to global private capital.</p>
<p>She argues that the terms frequently used in the discussion about Chinese capital in Africa – such as empire building, colonialism and hegemony – are limiting. They don’t allow for the interrogation of the actual behaviour, practices and possibilities of Chinese capital.</p>
<p>How then does Lee help us to re-frame the Chinese narratives in Africa? Rather than focus on migrant entrepreneurs or private companies, Lee <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2018.1539826">argues</a> that the uniqueness of Chinese investment has to do with state capital. And, she argues, China’s growing power and influence has been accompanied by misleading</p>
<blockquote>
<p>aggregate, continent-wide statistics on trade, investment and migration. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>There has hardly been any critical examination of the different sorts of capital traversing Africa, related behaviour, and the actual trends and patterns of foreign direct investment stocks.</p>
<h2>Negative messages</h2>
<p>Coverage of Chinese presence in Africa has been somewhat misleading. Media as well as policy and academic experts provide inaccurate data about China’s expanding investment patterns. For example, they <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2009-12-20/dragon-s-gift-real-story-china-africa">overestimate</a> Chinese loans. </p>
<p>This misleading coverage conceals the fact that Chinese capital is just one instance of capital <a href="https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/wir2016_en.pdf">still contending on the continent</a>. In fact, Chinese capital is far from being the leading source of foreign direct investment. UK and French investment into Africa <a href="https://infogram.com/chart-4-major-investor-economies-by-fdi-stockbn-usd-1h8n6mq98vyz2xo%20;%20see%20also%20https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12291%20in%20relation%20to%20agriculture">remain larger</a>.</p>
<p>Lee draws from the negative portrayals of Chinese capital to shed light on the practices in Zambia. She uses three historical frames: the 2008 global financial crisis, policy developments of windfall tax and value addition. </p>
<p>She shows how Chinese capital is shaped by two imperatives: accommodating national demands and development strategies in Zambia. Development strategies include, for example, Zambia’s policies on adding value to mineral resources before they are exported. </p>
<p>This behaviour of Chinese capital contradicts the extractive nature of western capital. Western capital is driven by a profit motive. It pays little attention to national development goals including labour, taxation and value addition.</p>
<p>Lee also examines the question of Chinese capital from the perspective of African states. She notes that national states have been amenable to Chinese capital under <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40339267?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">a mandated south-to-south relationship</a>. </p>
<p>As with other African countries, Zambia’s resource dependency limits value added products being made from copper and other minerals. But, as Lee shows, cooperation from Chinese capital has helped change this trajectory. She points to the Chambishi Multi-Facility Economic Zone project. This project has involved an investment of more than $900 million and potential to generate about 7,000 local employment opportunities and up to $300 million local procurement contracts. </p>
<p>But there have been problems too. Lee shows that Chinese capital hardly behaves differently in employment practices from those prevailing in the rest of the private sector in Zambia. Subordination and exploitation remain the order of the day. </p>
<p>This shows that key political and economic instruments as well as policies should be strengthened to address the negative social implications of Chinese capital on the continent.</p>
<h2>What’s missing</h2>
<p>The book’s narrative is limited in explaining why Chinese capital remains controversial in Zambia and across Africa. Nor does it sufficiently address why a negative perception of “Chinese investors” persists often <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/insights/27027/china-must-be-stopped-zambia-debates-the-threat-of-debt-trap-diplomacy">alongside</a> the failure of countries to manage natural resources better.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Lee’s book is important because it departs from generalisation to interrogate actual practices of Chinese capital.</p>
<p>Rather than attempts to find strategies to regulate and manage the influence of China on the continent, probably the focus should be on how China’s presence can be made to respond more to national and regional development aspirations than is the case currently – a feature for national policy and development actors. </p>
<p>While the battle for political and economic influence between the West and East is playing out <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/03/07/the-new-scramble-for-africa">across the continent of Africa</a>, the behaviour of capital will greatly influence current and future narratives. </p>
<p>Lee shows that China seems to hit the right note in many countries and in crucial economic sectors. But perils remain in areas such as those related to labour relations. </p>
<p>She also shows that characterisations of Chinese capital in Africa should not rely on a set of implications and generalisations about the ways in which Chinese capital works, and the ways in which national states change as a result of Chinese engagements. Rather it should depend on actual practices and realities and what they mean for national development. </p>
<p>Currently, however controversial, China appears to have been set apart as a partner of choice. And Lee shows the reasons why.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121396/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Manda, PhD does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Frequently used phrases to frame discussion about Chinese capital in Africa don’t allow for the interrogation of the actual behaviour, practices and possibilities of Chinese capital.Simon Manda, PhD, Lecturer of Agriculture, value chains and Environmental Sustainability, University of ZambiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1174292019-06-24T14:52:37Z2019-06-24T14:52:37ZCautionary tale of tax incentives for cigarette makers from Zambia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277600/original/file-20190603-69055-gmtc4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zambia's daliance with cigarette manufacturing is a cautionary tale for other African countries</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tobacco companies are zeroing in on one of the last global markets still ripe for exploitation: <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202467">the African continent</a>.</p>
<p>Much of the tobacco leaf and some of the manufactured cigarettes produced on the continent are exported. These exports earn the foreign currency that’s attractive to the finance ministries of <a href="https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12992-017-0305-x">tobacco producing countries</a>. But increasing amounts of the continent’s tobacco outputs remain in Africa, with tobacco companies taking advantage of countries with weak tobacco control measures and comparatively low consumption rates that they consider ripe for expansion.</p>
<p>While tobacco production is decreasing (slightly) in most of the rest of the world, <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/203234/9789241565127_eng.pdf;jsessionid=74BB70392ED2A271AE26981368C7F785?sequence=1">it is increasing in Africa</a>. In 2012 Africa accounted for just under 10% of all tobacco grown worldwide. </p>
<p>The major tobacco producing countries by tonnes grown in 2017 were (in order) <a href="http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC">Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi</a>. <a href="https://tobaccoatlas.org/topic/prevalence/">Smoking rates</a> in most African countries are still low by global comparisons. They are, however, rising in several sub-Sarahan nations.</p>
<h2>Economic benefits exaggerated</h2>
<p>For the past several years our research team has been studying the political economy of trade, tobacco control, and tobacco farming in three African countries: <a href="http://ilakenya.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Economics-of-Tobacco-Farming-Report.pdf">Kenya</a>, <a href="https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/economic-and-healthy-policy/farm-level-economics-of-tobacco-production-in-malawi-full-report.pdf">Malawi</a>, and <a href="https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/economic-and-healthy-policy/economics-tobacco-farming-zambia-2017.pdf">Zambia</a>. </p>
<p>We chose these countries because they represent different degrees of tobacco reliance and tobacco control, which allows us to make meaningful comparisons among them over time. Zambia and Malawi are major tobacco producers, whereas Kenya is not (though it has several concentrated areas of tobacco farming). </p>
<p>Zambia has ratified the World Health Organisation’s <a href="https://www.who.int/fctc/text_download/en/">Framework Convention on Tobacco Control</a> and has some tobacco control measures in place. Malawi has not ratified the Convention, has fewer tobacco control measures, and is more reliant on tobacco as a cash crop. Kenya has also ratified the Convention. But compared to the other two countries, it has much stronger tobacco control measures and is less economically dependent on tobacco. </p>
<p>There is, however, a common finding amongst all three countries. The economic importance of tobacco for government treasuries is often exaggerated while tobacco growing has <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-tobacco-woos-african-farmers-with-bogus-promises-of-prosperity-88509">failed to fulfil its promise of lifting farmers out of poverty</a>. In fact, it’s often been the reverse. Many smallholder tobacco farmers have been losing money or making so little they remain deeply impoverished or deeply in debt.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/big-tobacco-woos-african-farmers-with-bogus-promises-of-prosperity-88509">Big Tobacco woos African farmers with bogus promises of prosperity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our ongoing research in Zambia recently drew further attention to another risk. When governments provide economic incentives to tobacco manufacturers as an economic development <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41271-019-00171-8">strategy</a>, they’re shooting themselves in the foot. This is because the health and economic development costs of increased tobacco related diseases will far <a href="https://www.who.int/fctc/implementation/fctc2030/investment-case-zambia-who-fctc-2030.pdf">outstrip any benefits</a>, including the creation of new jobs. </p>
<h2>The effect of incentives</h2>
<p>Zambia, like many African countries, wants to attract or stimulate both foreign and domestic investment to diversify its manufacturing base. In an article reporting <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/tobaccocontrol/early/2015/07/01/tobaccocontrol-2015-052250.full.pdf">earlier findings from our study</a> we cautioned that it needed to exclude tobacco from its investment incentives. </p>
<p>The reasons for this were twofold. Firstly, this is something Zambia is actually <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/42811/9241591013.pdf;jsessionid=65A7244908940CAD86C1E5ECE18ED85F?sequence=1">obliged to do</a> as a party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Eleven years after Zambia ratified the Convention it has yet to implement all of its requirements in significant part by adopting and implementing corresponding legislation and regulation.</p>
<p>Secondly, we predicted that the government would be actively encouraging tobacco production if it provided incentives. This is exactly what’s happened. Two new cigarette manufacturing plants recently opened in a special ‘Multi-Facility Economic Zone’ on the edge of the capital Lusaka.</p>
<p>One is owned by British American Tobacco (BAT) Zambia and, according to our research participants, produces five million cigarettes a day. The company opened the plant <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2018/10/13/british-america-tobacco-constructs-a-25million-cigarette-plant/">to “localise its brands in Zambia”</a>, with around 40% of its output destined for the domestic market. </p>
<p>Government officials said the fiscal incentives it offered BAT’s new plant <a href="http://www.zambiainvest.com/agriculture/bta-investment-protection">were in line with the country’s development plan</a>, praising the 72 new manufacturing jobs the plant created. BAT’s fiscal incentive, offered to all investors in the economic zone, was 0% tax for the first five years of operation.</p>
<p>Around the same time that BAT set up shop, a local Zambian tobacco company took similar advantage of the tax offering. It opened a second cigarette factory capable of producing 20 million cigarettes a day <a href="http://www.rolandtobacco.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Roland-company-profile.pdf">creating 100</a> new jobs. </p>
<p>The company behind the new plant described its efforts as <a href="http://www.littlegatepublishing.com/2015/02/an-industry-going-up-in-smoke-roland-imperial-tobacco/">“feeding the nation’s favourite habit”</a> and noted the significant potential to grow the local market. To assist in that growth, it has 34 sales staff employed as “Foot Soldiers” to promote its product in places that motor vehicles can’t reach.</p>
<h2>Cautionary tale</h2>
<p>Many of the government officials with whom we met in late 2018 continue to claim that Zambians don’t smoke much and that most of the tobacco leaf (and now cigarettes) are simply exported elsewhere. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/tobaccocontrol/early/2019/01/05/tobaccocontrol-2017-054037.full.pdf">an increasing number of Zambians do smoke </a>. And that number is almost certain to rise with local cigarette manufacturing targeting local consumers. While female adult smoking remains in single digits, male adult current smoking is now greater than 25%. More troubling is that smoking among girls is now roughly equal to boys. </p>
<p>Zambia has since changed its investment policy and is no longer offering the 5 year tax free break. This was too late to prevent the new cigarette factories from taking advantage of the tax incentive. But it offers a cautionary tale to other African countries trying to attract investors to ensure tobacco is excluded from its offers. </p>
<p>Meanwhile Zambia, like many other countries around the world, finds itself caught between pro-tobacco development policies and efforts to implement tobacco control measures. The Zambian legislature is presently considering a new comprehensive <a href="http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/debate-around-proposed-tobacco-control-bill/">tobacco control bill</a>. If it becomes law, it will help to minimise the unhealthy consequences of its past investment policy, and to provide meaningful support for Zambians’ future well-being.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronald Labonte receives funding from Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Institutes of Health. He is an active member of the People's Health Movement, a not-for-profit global civil society organisation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fastone M. Goma is President of the Zambia Heart and Stroke Foundation and Chairman of the Zambia Tobacco Control Consortium. Both are not-for-profit civil society organisations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Drope receives funding from the US National Institutes of Health, R01 TW010898. He also receives support from the the Secretariat of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins University (with funds from the Bloomberg Philanthropies).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphael Lencucha receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institute for Health Reseach and the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec - Sante. </span></em></p>As Zambia’s case study shows, the benefits of boosting investment in cigarette manufacturing run the risk of being wiped out by the health and economic development costs of increasing smoking.Ronald Labonte, Professor and Canada Research Chair, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaFastone Goma, Associate Professor, University of ZambiaJeffrey Drope, Professor in Residence of Global Health, Marquette UniversityRaphael Lencucha, Associate professor, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1114552019-02-27T13:53:05Z2019-02-27T13:53:05ZConnecting food waste and sanitation services can help African farmers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258700/original/file-20190213-181627-1he3gjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fresh produce at a market in Blantyre, Malawi.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African agriculture is fundamental to supporting rural livelihoods and bolstering economic growth, and can benefit from technology and advances in other development sectors. One solution to help Africa’s agriculture can come from an unlikely sector: sanitation. </p>
<p>Most of the work in Africa’s agricultural sector is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912417301293">done by smallholder farmers</a> but it’s an increasingly tough way to earn a living. Smallholder farmers have limited <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07900627.2017.1324768">access to irrigation</a>, are vulnerable to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937800800099X">essential phosphorus supplies</a> for their crops, pests, diseases and power supplies are unreliable where they exist. Access to new agricultural technologies, such as renewable fertilisers, are limited. In addition, they are particularly vulnerable <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/">to the effects of climate change.</a>.</p>
<p>What if at least part of the solution to these problems lay with another of the continent’s major challenges: in this case, sanitation. </p>
<p>Across the continent less than 10% of the population is connected to a sewer system; <a href="https://www.planetaryhealth.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/07/57868-Sanitation_in_the_context_of_Plantary_Health_V5-1.pdf">with most households using some type of onsite sanitation technology</a> (e.g. pit latrines or septic tanks). If not managed properly, untreated excreta can have serious human and environmental health impacts. But if managed adequately, human waste can offer many opportunities: it’s rich in nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), carbon (for energy) and water. </p>
<p>All can be harnessed into productive resources using technologies that also mitigate the health risks associated with untreated sewage and solid waste. The end product can be delivered to smallholder farmers to fertilise their crops. Food waste from large markets can also be converted into nutrients for farmers.</p>
<p>Connecting two major sustainable development issues – organic waste from food and sanitation services and agriculture – can allow countries to develop a <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-circular-economy-23298">circular economy </a>. This could address unnecessary loss of resources. It also presents an alternative to the business as usual use-and-dispose system, and focuses on reusing and recycling waste and resources. </p>
<p>The African continent has tremendous capacity and an abundantly rich natural resource base. But a lack of private sector incentives, institutional rigidity, and lack of systems to support the use of renewable fertilisers, has prevented improvements in wide scale organic waste management and alternative agricultural practices. </p>
<p>Our ongoing research in sanitation and <a href="http://www.p-futurescities.net/">food systems</a> suggests that many African countries are well placed to benefit from this approach. In fact, one project already underway in Malawi shows how it can be done. </p>
<h2>Malawi’s story</h2>
<p>In Malawi, agriculture employs up to <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/627721490623342886/text/ITM00184-P158434-03-27-2017-1490623340300.txt">64% of the population.</a> Fresh food waste is a major health and urban management problem. This is because most people still shop at large, open-air markets which produce a great deal of waste.</p>
<p>At the Limbe Market, the largest in the City of Blantyre, more than a ton of <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2313-4321/3/4/55">organic waste</a>– like over-ripe tomatoes, banana peels and cabbage leaves – is generated each day. The City Council transports the waste from market to a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVNxrMNPFwo">composting facility</a> where it’s turned into rich, organic compost. This is then sold on to consumers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258701/original/file-20190213-181623-l538sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258701/original/file-20190213-181623-l538sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258701/original/file-20190213-181623-l538sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258701/original/file-20190213-181623-l538sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258701/original/file-20190213-181623-l538sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258701/original/file-20190213-181623-l538sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258701/original/file-20190213-181623-l538sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The composting process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This isn’t an approach used everywhere due to transport, logistical and space constraints, but the Blantyre facility shows that it’s technically feasible to divert waste from landfills and to add value to an otherwise useless product. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652615011749">Economic analysis</a> of the benefits of composting have been conducted. It shows that financial and environmental benefits are higher than relying on landfill. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X12002760">In Africa</a>, an open windrow composting can be a low-cost option for local council to manage their organic waste. </p>
<p>The use of recycled human excreta can also provide positive yield improvements, but <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0734242X10390073">community perceptions </a> remain a barrier to adopting these fertilisers. </p>
<h2>Support structures</h2>
<p>Any innovative project will need input and buy-in from smallholder farmers and be relevant to their developmental needs and skills. Traditional ways of agricultural extension of providing farmers with new technologies are unlikely to succeed without adequate awareness and evidence based approaches. Extension officers can work with farmers – using their extensive knowledge – to develop on farm organic recycling systems that are low-cost and that allows them to reduce their use of external fertilisers. </p>
<p>Strong institutions that support circular economies and enforcement of waste management regulations are also crucial. In a circular economy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-planned-national-waste-policy-wont-deliver-a-truly-circular-economy-103908">a range of policies </a> that create standards for imports and production, tax incentives, and explicit targets can help shift behaviours and motivate industries.</p>
<p>In Malawi, the same type of subsidy currently in place for chemical fertilisers could be piloted for organic fertilisers <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/institute-sustainable-futures/news/towards-phosphorus-and">(as we have found in Sri Lanka)</a> to gauge interest and market demand. </p>
<p>The private sector needs incentives to reduce risk and link new products with farmers. In Malawi, borrowing money from banks comes with a <a href="https://www.natbank.co.mw/index.php/interest-rates">23% interest rate</a>. <a href="https://finca.org/where-we-work/africa/malawi/">Micro-credit unions exist, </a> but loans are often small. This creates little incentive for private businesses to invest in waste management plants or marketing organic fertilisers. Banks can play a crucial role in stimulating the private sector in Malawi and creating new business opportunities. </p>
<h2>Great opportunities</h2>
<p>A circular economy framework can benefit African nations in improving development outcomes while reducing environmental harm. This can help nations work towards delivering on the sustainable development goals in an integrated way through linking food, waste, and sanitation systems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Federico Davila and co-authors supported for this work were supported by the Australia Africa Universities Network</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Mutiti Mweetwa receives funding from The Australia Africa Universities Network (AAUN). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana Cordell was supported for this work were supported by the Australia Africa Universities Network</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Mnthambala support for this work were supported by the Australia Africa Universities Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gudina Terefe Tucho works for Jimma Universitry and received funding for this work from Australian African Universities network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruben Sakrabani received funding from Cranfield University Sue White Fund and the Australian African Universities Network. </span></em></p>Across Africa less than 10% of the population is connected to a sewer system. But the waste could be used elsewhere.Federico Davila, Research Principal (Food Systems), University of Technology SydneyAlice Mutiti Mweetwa, Deputy Director Research and Graduate Studies, Senior Lecturer of Soil Microbiology, University of Zambia, University of ZambiaDana Cordell, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology SydneyFrank Mnthambala, PhD student in Environment and Agrifood, Cranfield UniversityGudina Terefe Tucho, Associate Professor, Jimma UniversityRuben Sakrabani, Senior Lecturer in Soil Chemistry, Cranfield UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.