Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance (WES) is increasingly recognized as a non-invasive, population-level
approach that can strengthen public health decision-making, ecosystem protection and One Health
collaboration. A harmonised WES approach for Africa promotes flexible alignment rather than rigid uniformity,
enabling countries to apply shared reference points while initiating implementation in ways that fit national
contexts.
A harmonised approach emphasizes practical initial national uptake, stakeholder coordination, the use of a
minimum WES viable harmonisation package, quality assurance and control, responsible data stewardship,
capacity building and pathways that translate WES outputs into action. Effective early WES application and
harmonisation requires coordinated action across public health, environment, wastewater-relevant institutions,
social and community actors, community representatives, and inter-governmental organisations rather than
delivery by one sector alone. Therefore, this approach is intended for governmental authorities, technical actors,
laboratories, utilities, academic institutions, civil society and regional or international partners involved in WES
implementation. You can find UNEP’s ‘Harmonisation of WES in Africa: Universal guidance and opportunities for
synergies’ tool here.
The purpose of this Call for Proposals is to identify governmental and intergovernmental institutions in African
countries to contribute to the implementation of the project "Preventing and addressing the degradation of
freshwater and marine ecosystems from source to sea"1
, with the objective of strengthened global to local action
through implementation of a Source to Sea approach to protect freshwater and marine ecosystems, by
addressing land- and sea-based degradation from wastewater, nutrients, and the physical alteration and
destruction of habitats. This Call for Proposals will support the initial country-level application of UNEP's Initiative
on Wastewater Surveillance for Africa (WWS4Africa Initiative), aimed at establishing foundations for WES
systems for environmental and public health purposes and positioning them for later scale-up. The initiative is
financially supported by the European Union's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA),
and implemented together with other key partners, including the Africa Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention (Africa CDC), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the United Nations University Institute for
Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).
Through this Call for Proposals, UNEP will support five countries to initiate and demonstrate feasible national
uptake of a harmonised WES approach within a four-month implementation period.