Strategic Focus
| The Strategic Focus of Organization’s Activities for MPL Abatement | |
| Geographical Focus | ■ Global ■ Regional ■ Africa ■ South Asia ■ Latin America and Caribbean ■ South East Asia |
| Partners of Focus | ■ National Government ■ City Government ■ Business ■ CSO ■ Academia /Educational Institutions |
| Approach | ■ Development of Laws, Regulations, Strategies, Action Plans, Indicators…etc. ■ Capacity Development ■ Finance ■ Data and Knowledge Development ■ Global/Regional Integration / Coordination / Exchange (e.g. Regional Knowledge Platform) |
| Thematic Focus |
■ Sustainable/ Circular Business Model Creation (e.g. Servitization of Products) ■ Extended Producer Responsibility ■ Proper Waste Management ■ Prevention of Littering, Illegal Dumping and Unintentional Waste into Environment ■ Education, Awareness-Raising and Human Behavior Related ■ Promotion of Private Sector Engagement/Actions ■ Monitoring of Country Policy Status Related to MPL |
| Brief Description |
The Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), a World Economic Forum initiative, aims to eradicate plastic pollution and foster a sustainable and inclusive world. Founded in 2018, GPAP unites governments, businesses, and civil society to translate commitments into concrete actions at the national and global levels.
Nationally, GPAP supports the development of locally owned, locally driven impact communities, known as National Plastic Action Partnerships (NPAPs), which build on an inclusive multistakeholder approach. GPAP currently supports 25 countries, anchoring its approach in three key dimensions:
Beginning with NPAPs in Indonesia, Ghana, and Viet Nam, the network of NPAPs has expanded across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. At the local level, the Viet Nam NPAP, for example, has grown into a community of over 200 organizations that share knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. GPAP is dedicated to convening multistakeholders for continuous dialogue towards an inclusive global plastics treaty, and to building capacity within stakeholder networks and communities, equipping them to achieve systemic change and ultimately end plastic pollution. |
Challenges
Activities, services, knowledge products, financing schemes...etc., delivered by the organisation to assist countries/regions in addressing their specific challenges:
■ Data Collection Related to Marine Plastic Litter
■ Lack of Financial Incentives for Waste Treatment in General
■ Lack of Financial Incentives for Technology Development
The neutrality of GPAP's platform provides a trusted space for stakeholders to engage in meaningful dialogue, understand tools to de-risk investments, and identify opportunities to unlock substantial financing opportunities.
Our strategy centers around developing and engaging comprehensive multistakeholder communities across our national, regional and global platforms to exchange knowledge and best practices, foster collaboration and drive impact in financing for circular solutions.
On the local level, this takes place in the form of our financing taskforces within our NPAPs which include key public, private and civil society voices. We work with our communities to develop national knowledge products such as the Ghana Financing Roadmap and Indonesia Financing Roadmap which reflect the existing financing landscape around plastics action within the country along with key recommendations for unlocking and driving investments. Similar exercises are in development in Vietnam, Pakistan and Mexico City at the moment.
On the global level, the Financing Coordination Group (FCG), serves as an informal coalition of organizations - comprising The Circulate Initiative, OECD, UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, the World Bank Group, and the World Economic Forum. The group facilitates knowledge exchange, capacity building and multistakeholder collaboration on financing solutions to end plastic pollution. The FCG brings together relevant decisionmakers, practitioners and experts to enhance national, regional and global coordination and support the development and ultimate implementation of an effective International Legally Binding Instrument (ILBI) on plastic pollution. An informal group of finance focal points from Member State delegations, including representatives from Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States, provide guidance to the FCG to ensure the relevance of its efforts for the multilateral negotiation process. Beyond the treaty, the FCG helps promote a holistic conversation on the financing landscape including public and private sources, diverse instruments – such as EPR, sustainability bonds and outcome-based finance – while spanning the full life cycle of plastics through curated research, webinars and in-person touchpoints.
Regionally, GPAP has a network of key financiers across Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean to help bridge the gaps between local and global dialogues and drive strategic investments in shared solutions.
Moreover, our programmes around innovation such as the Circulars Acceleration Network, a key initiative within UpLink, the World Economic Forum's early-stage innovation ecosystem, also championed by Accenture, support a global network of over 100 circular economy startups to help bring local solutions to global audiences. Out of this, is born the Solution’s Lab which convenes public and private partners to explore how traceability innovation helps catalyse the responsible sourcing of post-consumer feedstock at scale. Several NPAPs are also involved in national innovation challenges, such as Indonesia’s Project Showcase and Ghana’s Plastic Circularity Innovation Challenge. These national innovation challenges showcase solutions, award vital early-stage funding, and foster new partnerships.
■ Lack of Awareness Among Citizen, Business, Local Government
At the global level, communication campaigns play a vital role in reaching broad audiences to raise awareness and drive action. In addition to promotional materials shared before and after key events, our team provides daily updates on relevant news related to global plastics action—particularly spotlighting progress from our 25 National Plastic Action Partnerships (NPAPs)—and regularly shares their monthly newsletters.
To mark World Environment Day, we launched a campaign inviting members of our network to share what inspires them to join the fight against plastic pollution. GPAP has also leveraged the World Economic Forum’s communications platforms—which reach an average of 1 million unique weekly visitors on weforum.org and over 30 million followers across social media—to amplify these messages. In parallel, GPAP’s own LinkedIn page has surpassed a milestone of 10,000 followers, further extending our reach and engagement.
At the national level, in the NPAPs of Mexico City, Ecuador, and Nigeria, strategic communication campaigns and innovative media usage are utilised to raise awareness and drive behavioural change on plastic pollution. These initiatives, which include workshops, social media integration, and launching television shows, are critical for engaging both the private and public sector, fostering a sense of responsibility, and maintaining momentum towards sustainable practices.
■ Proper waste management system (including lack of local capacity)
Our project emphasizes the importance of establishing a robust waste management system, highlighting existing challenges, such as the lack of local capacity. The National Analysis and Modelling Tool’s analysis reveals critical gaps in the current waste management infrastructure of a country, including low collection and recycling rates and significant instances of open burning and environmental leakage. By modelling different scenarios, we propose tailored solutions that address these deficiencies and predict the outcomes of immediate, bold actions versus a business-as-usual approach by 2040. This strategic approach aims to enhance local waste management capacities and significantly reduce plastic pollution, providing a pathway for sustainable waste management practices.
■ Data Collection Related to Waste in General
The ability to measure the current crisis is paramount to creating a systems approach to tackling the plastic pollution problem. GPAP is increasingly fostering the adoption of consistent approaches for measuring plastic pollution among its partners. This uniformity is critical for aligning efforts, driving collective action, and enabling effective participation in global negotiations on plastic pollution.
Our project comprehensively addresses the broader issue of waste management, with a specific focus on municipal solid waste (MSW). The NAM tool provides a detailed analysis of waste generation in both urban and rural areas, covering various aspects such as collection rates, recycling practices, open burning, and leakage into nature. The data collected includes quantifying the volumes and types of waste, particularly macroplastic, which constitutes over 64% of plastic used across sectors and which is more prone to environmental leakage. This extensive data collection is essential for creating an accurate snapshot of the current waste management landscape and projecting future trends under different intervention scenarios.
■ Others: Awareness and the Implementation of Inclusive Approaches
At global level, the multi-stakeholder dialogues and events facilitated by GPAP have created a pathway for diverse actors to contribute their perspectives and co-create a shared vision for the future of the plastics ecosystem. At the national level, NPAPs have also worked to deliver community-based approaches to tackling plastic pollution. For instance, in Indonesia, community events bring stakeholders together to discuss and implement sustainable practices such as reuse, gender inclusion, social inclusion, and local waste management. This strengthens the capacity of communities and marginalised groups within those communities to manage waste more effectively.
Specifically, through our Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) work, we ensure their voices shape national and global policymaking. This includes our national action roadmaps, which all incorporate an equity and inclusion angle taking in the cultural, religious, and societal considerations of the relevant country. This includes the financing roadmaps as well. We also provided Social Context Assessments, a core exercise conducted in each national partnership to enable the community to understand the societal implications of plastic pollution including the inequities across the plastics value chain. The findings are integrated into relevant knowledge products and action plans. We have published assessments for our national partnerships in Ghana, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Nigeria, Pakistan, Maharashtra, and Peru.
Additionally, GPAP has been supporting projects that deliver direct informal waste worker capacity building to improve their livelihoods. By June 2025, in partnership with our NPAPs, we have supported a total of 11,946 informal waste workers. This includes training 19 waste workers to increase waste collection by 180%, establishing two community collection centres serving 61 communities, and hosting 10 workshops to train female waste workers.
Currently, through our Inclusive Plastic Action Programme, we are supporting non-profit organisations and social enterprises working on initiatives that build skills, improve livelihoods, and support inclusive solutions tailored to the informal economy. We will provide targeted grants to enhance capacity in the following areas:
- Training individuals in core competencies and capacities – business planning, financial skills, project management, technical skills in waste management, and hygiene
- Supporting organisational capacities – governance and partnership building
- Community engagement activities
- Environmental literacy and behavioural change
- Research and advocacy
Further Information
Contact Details
Name of Organization: World Economic Forum - Global Plastic Action Partnership (WEF-GPAP)
Name: Tasnima Zaman
Position: Specialist, Finance and Economic Policy
Division: Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP)
Email: tasnima.zaman@weforum.org