Rwanda’s leading newspaper led the production of a video highlighting women’s experiences in the Rwandan mining sector. My impressive undergraduate at African Leadership University, Jade Natacha Iriza, works as a full-time journalist and spearheaded this coverage in response to our earlier class discussion on gender and the environment. The video coincides with UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign and Rwanda’s National Mining Week. My expert research coordinator, Aline Providence Nkundibiza, and I were fortunate enough to join for rainy-day filming and offer interview footage from a mining field office outside Kigali.

My comments emphasized women’s capabilities in formalized and technologically-advanced operations, the cost of the “double burden” of domestic care work on female employees, and Rwanda’s position as a global leader in gender mainstreaming ethical extraction practices. The International Institute for Sustainable Development has outlined a number of ways to address challenges while minimizing the gendered impacts of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and promoting economic independence for women miners in Africa. Here are just a few:

1. Boost the skills of women artisanal miners

The ability of women to participate effectively and consistently in the artisanal mining sector is often limited by traditional gender roles and a lack of available technical training. Providing such training in conjunction with legal mining knowledge and the skills to identify entrepreneurial opportunities can economically benefit women miners in the artisanal sector.

By enhancing gender equity and equality within ASM, the sector can spur social transformations to achieve poverty reduction, inclusive growth and sustainable development.

2. Create women-focused services

Women miners can face a variety of barriers, but with the right tools, ASM can contribute to their increased economic empowerment. Mobile mentoring and counseling services focused on women’s issues is one path. Another solution is to establish childcare centers or other family-related services at mine sites to alleviate some of the barriers that otherwise hinder women’s participation in the artisanal mining sector.

Women often face gender discrimination at excavation and mine sites, which prevents them from taking on more lucrative activities.

3. Encourage education and sector involvement

Recent research among women miners in Uganda found that more than 70% of the women had little to no schooling. Establishing women-focused training and encouraging women miners in the artisanal sector to join or create associations can provide opportunities for knowledge sharing and access to information, and increase their ability to foster new initiatives.  

4. Challenge unfair norms

Women often face gender discrimination at excavation and mine sites, which prevents them from taking on more lucrative activities. Due to these issues, women tend to work alone rather than in teams with men. By encouraging women miners to work collaboratively with each other, and by encouraging the artisanal mining sector as a whole to challenge gender norms holding women back, they can prosper and take on roles that could earn them a higher income.

As women continue to make up a large share of the ASM workforce, there is a pressing need to ensure their quality of life, particularly for women miners working outside of formal legal systems. By enhancing gender equity and equality within ASM, the sector can spur social transformations to achieve poverty reduction, inclusive growth, and sustainable development.