Supporting international projects improving waste management

Since 2015, Syctom's international solidarity programme has embodied its commitment to support progress in waste management in developing countries. It aims to improve the living conditions of local people by providing financial and/or technical support for initiatives to improve recycling, sorting, and recovery, whilst combating wastage and environmental pollution. To pursue this aim, Syctom has chosen to fund NGOs and local authorities submitting projects in response to a call for proposals entitled 'Waste Solidarity'; projects may be renewed on an annual basis.

  • 39 projects supported in 20 countries since 2015
  • 3,500,000 set aside since 2015
  • Between 2016 and 2019, French local authorities provided €5,476,000 in public-sector development aid for waste management.  Syctom contributed  63% of this total.

The 'waste solidarity' call for projects

Syctom is recognised for its work supporting projects alongside other stakeholders in public-sector development aid, particularly
through the leverage provided by the match funding scheme. This makes it possible to provide co-funding for ambitious projects, as
well as fund smaller projects not eligible for other measures.

Taking part

  • Candidates respond to a call for expressions of interest.
  • Candidates shortlisted by the Solidarity and International Cooperation Committee are invited to submit a full application.
  • Completed applications are then analysed by the Committee and submitted to Syctom’s Executive Committee, which decides whether or not to grant aid.

Eligibility criteria

Applicants must be associations under French law or a local authority, local public agency, foundation, or public interest group with its registered headquarters in France; the application must correspond to Syctom's priority actions.

Some of the projects we support

Water/sanitation/waste project, Myanmar

Funding: 98, 000

"In Magway, a town with a population of 75,000 in the dry region of Myanmar, we worked with the local council to design a pilot project improving the quality and sustainability of municipal drinking water, wastewater drainage, and solid waste management services. For the latter, Syctom funding made it possible to carry out a diagnosis: this revealed that a large quantity of organic waste mixed with other waste could not be recovered. The idea that has come out of this is to improve waste collection and then set up a composting unit, in order to recover organic waste in the form of compost for reuse in agriculture and public gardens - as well as raise public awareness about the issue of waste sorting.”

Thomas Le Jeune - Project manager, GRET