Perspectives on female participation in
small-scale mining in Ghana
Lead Researcher: Dr Natalia Yakovleva
Background
Women occupy a distinctly marginal role in the management of small-scale mining operations worldwide. They are rarely identified as miners in their own right and only sporadically attain the same decision-making positions as their male counterparts, including concession owners, mine operators, dealers and buying agents and equipment owners.
Although women provide up to half of the total workforce in the sector, they do not receive equal financial reward as men. One reason for low payment to female small-scale miners could be seen in the "unskilled" nature of the work they perform.
It is acknowledged that ASM, if properly regulated, can potentially create opportunities for productive employment, business development, a reinvestment of revenues from small-scale mining into local economies and generation of local infrastructure.
Gender mainstreaming is seen as a key way for facilitating an increased and equitable participation of women in ASM worldwide. The United Nations stresses the need for gender mainstreaming and urges policy-makers to support "increased involvement of women at all levels" of artisanal mining industry.
In Ghana, according to the current estimates, around 200,000 people are involved in small-scale mining, the majority of whom are illegal miners. Main reasons for the expansion of the illegal small-scale mining population have been linked to an inefficient regularisation process plagued by problems in registration and licensing. 15% of legalised segment of Ghanaian artisanal and small-scale mining sector is female, as well as half of the illegal mining population (galamsey).
However, the roles of women in the small-scale mining sector in Ghana, their struggles and needs have been largely overlooked in both policymaking and research circles. Acquisition of knowledge about female participation in the small-scale mining is a key to facilitating regularisation of the artisanal and small-scale mining sector. This research projects provides an extended analysis of female participation in the Ghana’s small-scale mining sector, drawing upon experiences from galamsey camps in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region of Ghana.
