BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
The government has been called to prioritise women in mining as they have been for a long time left out to benefit from the country’s natural resources and they are also disproportionately affected as a result of the operations.
Speaking at a recent Economic Justice for Women Project, stakeholder engagement meeting in Harare, Fidelis Simbarashe Musona, Monitoring and Evaluation Lead at Centre for Natural Resource Governance said all attempts to empower women in mining should be deliberate.
Musona said it was important because women are most affected than their male counterparts.
“The recognition of artisanal and small-scale miners is a significant development as there are numerous women-mining groups, supported by different donors, banks etc.
“This will increase women’s participation in mining.
”There is a need for the government to demonstrate an intentional attempt to position women to benefit from mining in the Mines and Minerals Act and in mining generally.
“Going forward, we need to put our heads together and increase advocacy into gender and extractives to ensure increased intentional drives for women in mining.
”The government needs to be persuaded to prioritise women in mining,” said Musona.
He added that there was need for serious collaborations so as to achieve this with the amalgamation of empowering acts of Parliament, national policies like the Gender Policy, the Constitution in its gendered dimension.
Musona added: “Ensuring equal participation in decision-making on the extractive sector is critical to addressing inequalities and ensuring that the sector is managed in the interest of all citizens.
”Through the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender Commission, provisions should be made to incentivize and support the participation of women-owned or women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the mining value chain.
“This could involve set-asides, preferential procurement policies, and access to financing and business development support.
”Provisions could be made to support the training and skills development of women in technical, operational, and managerial roles within the mining sector.
“This could involve partnering with educational institutions and vocational training centers to create tailored programs.”
Musona also further stressed that the full social benefit of resources development can only be realised if women and girls are able to participate as fully as males in all aspects of resources activity and consequent economic development and social progress.
He said this could only be possible if the principles of gender equality are embedded within the Mines and Minerals Act, supporting policies and practices.
Musona also revealed that this was necessary because “women are carrying the yoke or burden of mining and mining related engagements in the communities.”
”Implied is the fact that, the Mines and Minerals bill in Zimbabwe has left women worse off than before.
”Limited women access to land, limited access to resources- patriarchy.
“Men have most access to the benefits, which consist primarily of employment and income, while women and the families they care for are more vulnerable to the risks created by extractive industries, which consist of mostly harmful social and environmental impacts.
”The loss of land and waters that they rely upon to grow food for their families when they are forced to move by an extractives project will typically have a greater impact upon the women of a community, as they frequently take the greater responsibility for subsistence farming,” he added.
Margaret Mutsamvi, EJWP Director said they had “walked quite a journey documenting through research papers and stories and experiences of young women in a series of documentaries and as a strategy, has introduced these #SheConnects platforms for a direct engagement between young women affected by mining investments and initiatives and critical duty bearers such as legislature, ministries such as Ministry of Women Affairs, Small and Medium Enterprises and Community Development, Ministry of Youth, Ministry of Mines, the Zimbabwe Gender Commission and respective civil society organizations.
“The aim is ensuring that such platforms map a practical way/steps forward in addressing emerging problems that are limiting the young women’s access to full socio-economic opportunities in respective host communities.”
