{"id":7114,"date":"2015-03-19T09:41:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T13:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carleton.ca\/africanstudies\/?page_id=7114"},"modified":"2025-03-11T13:48:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T17:48:06","slug":"artisanalminingandgender","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/africanstudies\/research\/artisanalminingandgender\/","title":{"rendered":"Artisanal Mining and Gender in Sub-Saharan Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gorette Arinaitwe (l) and Anna Ampaire at work in an open cast gold mine at a site in central Uganda.<\/p><\/div>\n

Le Fran\u00e7ais suit<\/a><\/p>\n

About<\/h3>\n

Professors and students at the Institute of African Studies are undertaking research on the gendered dimensions of women\u2019s livelihoods in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in different countries in sub-Saharan Africa. ASM is a form of mining generally using minimal or semi-mechanization, and relying on large amounts of labour, \u00a0supporting an estimated 100 million people worldwide. ASM has recently been described by the World Bank as \u201cone of the most indispensable \u2013 if not the<\/i> most important – rural non-farm activity in the developing world\u201d. The research projects examine the gendered context of mining law and policy together with a study of the livelihoods of women in ASM against the back-drop of growing international attention and policy interventions on ASM, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This research is in collaboration with colleagues in Africa and Canada.<\/p>\n

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Women\u2019s Empowerment, Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining and \u201cConflict Commodities\u201d: 2014- 2017 <\/a><\/dt>

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Scope<\/h4>\n

This project examines women\u2019s livelihoods in the artisanal mining of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold (3TGs), in three countries in Africa\u2019s Great Lakes Region: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.\u00a0The artisanal mining of 3TGs is receiving unprecedented international attention and heightened regulation. These four minerals are in high demand globally and their extraction is seen as offering African states both potential economic growth and the risk of increased criminality.\u00a0At the same time, international consumer demand for ethically sourced, \u201cconflict-free\u201d electronics and other goods, has generated a series of measures to \u2018regulate\u2019 the sector. While women\u2019s economic roles are essential to ASM, there is little reliable data on women\u2019s economic activities and the conditions that structure them.<\/p>\n

Project Partners<\/h4>\n

This project was done in collaboration with IMPACT <\/strong>(formerly Partnership Africa Canada) (see https:\/\/impacttransform.org<\/a>), the Development Research and Social Policy Analysis Centre <\/strong>of Uganda, WIAMO<\/strong> in Rwanda, and independent researchers in each country. This project generated much needed data on women\u2019s economic roles in ASM to be used to inform policy deliberations at the national, regional and international level.<\/p>\n

Funding<\/h4>\n

This three year project (Sept 2014-August 2017) was carried out with financial support under the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) <\/strong>initiative. GrOW is a multi-funder partnership with the UK Government\u2019s Department for International Development, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the International Development Research Centre, Canada.<\/p>\n

Additional Information<\/h4>\n

For more information, please go to the project’s page\u00a0Women’s Empowerment, Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in “Conflict Commodities”<\/a><\/p>\n

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Gender and Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining: Kenya, Mozambique and Sierra Leone: 2014-2021; 2017-2024; 2023- 2027.<\/a><\/dt>

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Scope<\/h4>\n

Over three projects, researchers at Carleton University and at partner universities and organizations in Africa and Canada have been studying women\u2019s livelihoods in one gold mining site in each of Migori, Kenya; Manica, Mozambique; and Tonkolili, Sierra Leone. Researchers visited the mine sites each year over four years, usually for a month at a time, exploring how gender operated to organize livelihoods in these gold sites, and how women navigated their mining-related livelihoods. In a second project, the project partners are collaborating on events to connect the research results to the civil society and governmental organizations actively working on ASM and resource governance issues in each country, as well as those working transnationally. The activities are built around policy dialogues and knowledge exchange with researchers, mining community members, local, national and transnational civil society organizations and policy makers.<\/p>\n

In a new, third SSHRC- funded project, starting in 2023, the team of researchers are now exploring new dynamics in these ASGM areas emerging in the period during and after the COVID-19 \u2018lockdowns’. These include gendered dynamics of environmental impacts and policy interventions ostensibly aimed at environmental harms; child care and youth work in or enmeshed within ASGM livelihoods; women\u2019s economic empowerment changes within shifting ASGM economies; and gendered implications of ASM formalization\/recognition initiatives on livelihoods and across transnational policy initiatives on gold supply chains.<\/p>\n

Project Partners<\/h4>\n

Working in collaboration with the following partners, this project will generate research to better understand women\u2019s economic roles in mining and thus address a significant gap in knowledge about both artisanal mining and women as economic actors, and second, to consider the gendered impacts of policies aimed at legalizing and regularizing artisanal mining.<\/p>\n

Researchers\/ Partners<\/p>\n