Online courses : Knowledge from the frontline: The online academy reshaping waste management training

Specialist social enterprise Global Waste Lab has launched the Global Waste Lab Academy, a new online learning platform designed to bring practical waste management training to professionals operating in under-resourced contexts across the Global South. The platform opens with four courses, three of which have been co-created directly with experienced in-country practitioners.

Lucien Yoppa from Cameroon developed Sorting waste at source: Making realistic decisions; Gemechu Beyene from Ethiopia co-created Waste and health: Understanding risks and protecting people; and Tram Nguyen from Vietnam developed Food waste management: What works in practice. A fourth course, Introduction to waste management: Understanding systems, was authored by Global Waste Lab Founder Zoë Lenkiewicz.

The Academy did not emerge from assumption. Prior to development, Global Waste Lab conducted audience research with around 200 waste management practitioners. The findings were consistent: professionals wanted training grounded in real working conditions rather than theory, free to access, and functional in low-bandwidth environments. The Academy has been designed to meet all three requirements.

Courses are structured into short lessons with self-reflection points and end-of-course quizzes, and are available in 13 languages. Each is accompanied by downloadable resources including templates, workbooks and checklists.

What sets the Academy apart from conventional e-learning provision is its approach to content development. Rather than drawing on distant expertise to produce courses about contexts it may not fully understand, Global Waste Lab works alongside practitioners to translate lived experience into structured, accessible learning. Co-creators are paid fairly for their contribution and credited fully.

Zoë Lenkiewicz, Founder of Global Waste Lab, is clear about what has been missing from existing provision: "Too often, expertise from the Global South is extracted lightly, reshaped elsewhere, and returned in forms that feel distant from the realities people are working in. The knowledge has always existed. What was missing was a way to share it, on equal terms, at scale, and in a form that works for the people who need it most."

The platform reflects a central conviction at Global Waste Lab: that those working closest to waste management challenges frequently hold the most valuable insights into what works, what fails, and what is genuinely achievable in constrained environments.

Looking ahead, Global Waste Lab intends the Academy to expand into a broader library of practitioner-led courses, with the aim of building knowledge, confidence and professional recognition across the waste management sector. The first phase of development was supported by BI Norwegian Business School.

The organisation is actively seeking partners to support the development of future courses. More information is available at globalwastelab.com/academy.