This publication explores how men and women are differently impacted by the extractive industries (EI), and the implications of this on the sustainable development of their communities, as well as on the profitability of extractive industry operations themselves. The publication explores the gender dimensions of EI in terms of: employment and income; environment; community consultations; and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). It was developed based on World Bank consultations with different mining communities around the world.
This report provides suggestions for governments, EI companies, civil society, and other policy-makers for addressing and mitigating gender-specific negative impacts of EI, and amplifying the potential for EI to benefit men and women in the community. The report concludes with a set of indicators for measuring the extent to which gender-sensitive interventions are improving the status of women and gender relations in target communities.
Key Findings:
- In many communities, formal EI jobs go primarily to men. Worldwide it is extremely rare to find any EI companies with higher than 10% female employment, with many being less than 5%. In some cases EI companies base their hiring discrimination on ‘cultural sensitivity,’ concerned that hiring women for better-paid skilled jobs would be against local culture and would cause a backlash against women by male workers and male community leaders.
- Extractive industries, almost by definition, have major environmental impacts on the communities in which they take place; women’s domestic roles often mean they are particularly affected by the environmental impacts of EI operations.
- Including women in the community consultation process is a necessary but not sufficient condition for ensuring that the concerns of the communities’ women are included – rather, a cross section of women, representing a variety of opinions, is crucial. Furthermore, the benefits of well-intentioned community programs and actions can be lost in communities where women’s groups are divided and unable to reconcile their differences.
Recommendations:
- Given this understanding of how EI, and EI related programs, differently affect men and women, safeguards, interventions, and policies must be made sensitive to these issues, and gender equity and women’s empowerment must be promoted in the EI context. Key stakeholders in this commitment should include mining companies, national and regional governments, as well as civil society and communities themselves.
- All stakeholders should work to support women’s employment in EI operations as well as in support industries. Stakeholders can also work to promote women’s economic and social empowerment, through improved economic and financial opportunities, such as microcredit programs.
- EI companies can invest in social programs to alleviate some of the traditional burdens on women and offset some of the impacts of EI.
- Governments and EI companies can provide capacity building opportunities for women, to be able to take advantage of business and employment opportunities related to EI. They can also promote, conduct and/or require gender-sensitive social baseline assessments and social mapping, to determine the potential impacts of EI operations on gender relations in the impacted communities.
