The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be having a significant impact on the Artisanal and Small-scale mining (ASM) sector. Preliminary reports from select countries in sub-Saharan Africa (see http://delvedatabase.org) point to a sharp reduction in mining activities, leading to financial hardship and food insecurity. The price of some metals, such as gold, are prone to extreme fluctuation because of COVID-19 supply chain bottle necks, combined with increase demand for gold as a ‘safe haven’ for capital during the anticipated forthcoming recession. The effects of COVID-19, and the resulting economic contractions, on women are pronounced due in part to women’s care responsibilities and their insecure roles within the mining supply chain.
This report looks at the impact of COVID-19 on women in ASM communities in three African countries – Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Kenya. It is the product of a collaboration between Canadian and African researchers and is based on a virtual roundtable meeting held in October 2020. The roundtable meeting was attended by academics, non-governmental organisations, and men and women miners from mining communities in the three countries.
Government restrictions during the pandemic affected mining activities and impacted the source of livelihood for most members of the communities in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Mozambique. In some instances, there was a complete ban on mining in response to COVID-19. In other cases, the restriction of movement made it impossible to sell the minerals because while the mining takes place in rural areas, the buyers who normally travel from urban areas were unable to do so because of travel restrictions. In some communities there was no restriction of movement, but the government imposed other COVID-19 measures. The resultant effect of government restrictions was a drop in the price of gold and fewer buyers of gold. The decrease in gold price did not mean a decrease in the cost of mining. Financial support for mining activities also stopped during this period, with miners unable to access funds for mining activities. Miners buy tools such as shovels and head pans from other towns, but the travel ban made it impossible to secure tools needed for mining. The loss of livelihood during the pandemic also affected security in the mining communities, as theft and insecurity increased. Alternative sources of income are limited in mining communities, so the mining communities were hard-hit by COVID-19.
Representatives of the mining communities observed that COVID-19 affected women more than men. Women bear the brunt of running the household in these communities. In the words of one of the miners, “life is harder for women and children”. When governments imposed COVID-19 restrictions, women still had to go out to find sustenance. Some women miners indicated that the prices for food went up as it was more expensive to transport food from neighbouring regions into the mining areas. The miners report that the patriarchal system makes women vulnerable to domestic violence. A miner at the roundtable stated that “women are not considered as human beings; they are considered as tools for pleasure”. In some mining communities, women are prohibited from digging for gold but are involved in the processing of mineral-bearing ore. They depend on the men for the minerals. This middleman situation of mining means that the women in those communities do not have much bargaining power in determining the income generated from mining. With the onset of COVID-19 and the men’s inability to mine at the pre-COVID-19 pace, women’s income from mining became more precarious. The enhanced precarity of revenue during the pandemic made the women vulnerable to sex work as a means of subsistence. In other communities with similar restrictions on the work that women can do in mining, COVID-19 had the effect of overturning such defined roles in mining. COVID-19 led to a shortage of labour for some of the tasks, so women found themselves collecting, cutting, and grinding stones for a living. Women also delved into timbering (all tasks that were previously carried out by men from outside the community). The fall in the price of minerals and lack of buyers, coupled with greater household responsibilities, placed women in a vulnerable situation. Women in some mining communities resorted to sex work during COVID-19 because of their vulnerable state. Some of the miners said that teenage sex work and pregnancy increased in some mining communities during COVID-19. The rise in teenage sex work and pregnancy in the communities is attributed to the lockdown of schools in a harsh pandemic economy. Other miners observed that communities without teenage sex work recorded an increase in sex work of adult women. Sex work provided a means of affording food and necessities for daily sustenance. Gender-based violence also increased in some mining communities during the lockdown.
We wish to acknowledge the following who made the roundtable possible: Carleton University; University of Sierra Leone, Fourah Bay College; University of Nairobi, Mombasa Campus; Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique; The Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), Sierra Leone; Forum Mulher. Mozambique; and members of the mining communities of Matanda, Kenya; Manica Province, Mozambique; Macamba and Mansubirie, Sierra Leone. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (890-2017-0038), and Mitacs Canada.