Mining & Gender - 5 Nov 2007

Congratulations RMAP on putting on this event. Over the past several years and thanks to the work of groups like Oxfam, the voices of community women are now starting to be heard regarding mining projects. I see three main concerns that need to be addressed. First, mining has a gender bias – the benefits (which are largely employment and income) mostly accrue to men whereas the risks (in particular domestic violence and abuse, loss of arable land and gardens, compromised water quality, harassment, social disruption and cultural harm) fall mostly upon women. Second, mining companies rarely consult with women and/or disaggregate the views of women from men and are often (along with aid agencies and government) oblivious to their negative impacts on women. Third, women are deprived of opportunities to make significant contributions to community wellbeing and development outcomes because they are not consulted on how government grants to mining communities should be spent or how mining company community programs should be designed. When consulted women emphasize programs and projects to improve community health and education services and women emphasize recurrent funding to get existing facilities properly staffed and functioning. By contrast too many programs focus on new projects such as roads, buildings and infrastructure without due regard for recurrent expenditures or getting existing facilities to work. In this context one of the great dilemmas facing mining operations is that all too often they are islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty which breeds resentment and opposition from the surrounding communities. Many companies are now investing significant amounts in community programs to improve the development outcomes for the surrounding communities – but often to no avail; health, education and well being outcomes are not improving. Even worse communities become dependant on the mine for their economic well being and mine closure becomes an economic disaster for the community and a reputation disaster for the companies. Some mining companies are now recognizing that by engaging with women’s community groups they can redress the gender bias, provide more direct and indirect employment opportunities for women, improve how they design their community programs, reduce community dependency on their mining operations and support women’s economic and social empowerment as a strategy to get better development outcomes for their neighbouring communities. I applaud RMAP for putting on this mining and gender event. In the same week on November 8 and 9 there is a first Mining and Gender Colloquium being organized by Mintek and Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. Both events indicate that for the mining industry to engage on gender issues and improve its consultation and impacts is an idea whose time has come. I look forward to the procedings making a contribution to forwarding the thinking in this area regarding good practice and best way or ways.