Intervention strategy for sustainable waste management systems in developing countries using community of practice

Abstract

Collaborative systems from various sectors, including public community, are encouraged to tackle the complexity of waste problems. However, identifying the most effective intervention strategies to promote sustainable participation in collaboration remains a challenge. Some studies suggest that social learning with a community of practice platform enables collaboration while also facilitating collective learning to support transformative change in waste management. This study aimed to diagnose the characteristics of expected intervention strategies to sustain community participation in waste management program from past studies conducted in developing countries. This study also figured out the possibility of the community of practice implementation in waste management domain. Using a literature review method, this study selected and analysed thoroughly 52 papers related to waste management topics and 31 papers related to community of practice implementation in various domains, especially environmental management and waste management issues. The selected papers were fully reviewed and coded using qualitative data analysis software. There were 2 categories to map the content of the studies related to waste management topics, while 2 categories and 7 sub-categories were used to map the content of the selected papers on Community of Practice topic. The study found that social learning using Community of Practice platform is implementable in waste management system in developing countries as it can facilitate multi-loop learning activities including single loop learning that facilitates technical change, double loop learning that enable reflection to start mindset or psychological change, and triple loop learning that encourage systemic change. Research has demonstrated that multi-loop learning drives significant transformation from the individual level to the system, thereby bolstering the new waste management paradigm. The community of practice also enables collaborative action from multi-stakeholders across sectors and across organization at various level, which is crucial for the effectiveness of collaborative waste management system. The study’s main contribution and novelty lie in the proposed model which comprehensively describes the inter-relationships among parties across levels and sectors in waste management system at local and regional level. It also suggested a multi loop learning model that describe the expected learning cycles in the waste management system which have not been found in any previous studies. This finding is crucial for policymakers and government agencies in many developing countries to find new insight to improve waste management system through collaboration that enable social learning among involved stakeholders. Further studies are required to test the proposed model of community of practice and measure the effect and its effectiveness in nurturing learning outcomes for every loop of learning.

Keywords

• collaborative system
• community of practice (cop)
• developing countries
• public participation
• waste management