ECA calls for women-centred policy reforms in mining across Africa
A new report from a research by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on women in artisanal and small mining in Africa has called for a policy overhaul in mining for inclusive and active participation of women.
The research, partnered by UN Women and featuring case studies from Zambia, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Guinea-Conakry, found that the legal and policy framework in the mining and extractive industries make it difficult for active participation and inclusion of women.
A statement from the ECA issued in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com said access to affordable capital financing was identified by the report as the single most influential constraint for women in mining.
The research was aimed at reviewing existing policy, legal and regulatory frameworks in the mining sector, to propose recommendations that integrate gender equality and equity to advance women’s economic participation and economic empowerment.
The study also examines a wide range of potential financing mechanisms for small-scale mining operations with a view to up-scale them to commercially viable entities.
Ms Thokozile Ruzvidzo, the ECA Coordinator for Africa Centre for Gender was cited in the statement as saying during a national review meeting in Lusaka, Zambia that the participation of women in the economic sector and specifically the extractive industries was central to Africa’s structural transformation.
“There is interplay between gender equality and Africa’s structural transformation and ECA has identified women entrepreneurship in the agriculture and extractive industries as priority”, she said.
The ECA noted that the report found little participation of female miners in the production and trade of gemstones at the international market, in the Zambian case study.
An excerpt of the report made available reads: “Whilst gemstones produced in Zambia, in particular, emeralds and amethysts are widely traded in international markets, women miners are not making a significant contribution to the reported production of the gemstones.”
The report, recommends the establishment of a clear policy direction for the artisanal and small mining sub-sector and says that “in particular, artisanal mineral rights should be positioned for progression into small and large scale mining.”
The report further calls for change in the current two-year term for renewable artisanal mineral rights which it says is not commercially sustainable because it “entrenches artisanal mining as a subsistence activity that poses a risk to both miners and the environment”.
The report recommends that governments must facilitate easier access to surface rights so that miners can increase opportunities to diversify mining with other agricultural activities as the report also found that most women miners were “absentee miners” conducting mining on part time, seasonal and ad-hoc non-residential basis but not as a primary source of income.
By Emmanuel Odonkor