Hazardous pesticides are an overlooked circular crisis

From the newsletter

Seven African countries have been selected in the first round of funding from the Global Framework on Chemicals Fund, joining global efforts to phase out highly hazardous pesticides. While pesticides aren’t officially classified as waste, their toxic legacy makes regulation critical to Africa’s broader shift toward safer, regenerative and ultimately circular economies.

• As a largely agricultural continent, Africa has some of the highest pesticide exposure rates globally. This makes the region especially vulnerable to chemical-related health harms, yet solutions remain underfunded and poorly enforced.

• While plastics and e-waste receive growing attention and investment, chemical waste remains a blind spot. Weak regulation continues to allow toxic exposures to persist across farming and other sectors.

More details

• The Fund is part of the Global Framework on Chemicals, a voluntary multi-stakeholder platform adopted at the Fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management in 2023 to promote the safe and sustainable management of chemicals and waste across all sectors.

• In Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Senegal will implement the project Highly Hazardous Pesticides: Analysis, Regulation and Sustainable Alternatives while Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania will roll out Building Capacity for Replacing Highly Hazardous Pesticides with Agroecology. In Latin America, the selected countries are Colombia, Peru, El Salvador and Honduras.

• The selection followed the Framework Fund’s first call for applications in October 2024, which attracted 105 applications from 77 countries. The selected projects will benefit from the Fund’s initial pledge of US$28 million, receiving grants ranging from US$300,000 to US$800,000 for implementation periods of up to three years.

• Africa’s inclusion in this first round of funding marks long overdue recognition of the continent’s acute vulnerability to pesticide-related harm. Driven by informal trade, weak regulation and widespread use of toxic products banned elsewhere, Africa now faces some of the world’s highest pesticide exposure rates.

• According to UN and civil society data, between 6% and 10% of pesticides registered in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries are classified as highly hazardous. In some African nations, such as Kenya, up to 70% of pesticide volumes in use fall into this category.

• Smallholder farmers who are the backbone of Africa’s food system are most exposed. Lacking protective gear, proper training or clear labelling, they face elevated risks of respiratory illness, cancers and reproductive disorders, especially among women and children. Despite this, responses remain underfunded and poorly coordinated, leaving rural communities to bear the brunt of chemical harm.

• Yet agrochemical waste is still missing from Africa’s circular economy agenda. While plastics and e-waste receive growing attention, the toxic footprint of hazardous pesticides is equally damaging and deeply embedded in the continent’s food systems. This pollution contributes to soil degradation, water contamination and biodiversity loss, weakening long-term agricultural productivity and public health.

• The circular economy offers a valuable lens to tackle these challenges. Its core principles, eliminating pollution, preserving resource value and regenerating natural systems, are highly relevant to agriculture. These translate into reducing synthetic inputs, cycling nutrients to restore soil and favouring safe, renewable solutions. Yet current pesticide dependence undermines all three. It creates toxic waste streams, locks farmers into extractive input cycles and erodes environmental resilience.

• Agroecology, proposed in some of the new projects under Global Framework on Chemicals Fund, offers a compelling alternative. It encourages practices like composting, intercropping and biological pest control, low input methods already practised informally by many African farmers. The African Union’s Green Recovery Action Plan (2021–2027) backs such nature-based solutions as part of its sustainability agenda.

• Globally recognised tools already exist to guide this transition. The Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management, the International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management and Fertiliser Use all promote safer, integrated farming approaches. But uptake remains slow, hampered by fragmented governance, outdated laws and weak investment.

• Adopting the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is a vital step. But without stronger regulation, coordination and investment, Africa risks locking in toxic agricultural models that undermine its long-term regenerative potential.

Our take

• Ecological alternatives to hazardous pesticides are not optional; they are essential to restoring degraded soils, protecting water systems and building resilient agricultural systems. Without this shift, Africa’s food systems will remain chemically dependent and environmentally fragile.

• Governments must embed pesticide reform into circular economy strategies, aligning environmental, health and agricultural policies to confront toxic exposures and promote sustainable farming across the continent.

• Agrochemical pollution must be treated as a systemic threat, not a side issue, in circular transition planning. Unless urgently addressed, pesticide waste will continue to undermine Africa’s health, food systems and progress toward a truly regenerative economy.