Women in Mining seeks 30% participation



President, Women in Mining (WIM) Ghana, Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo has underscored the need for the country to recognise the enormous contributions women are making in the country’s mining sector value chain.

Women in Mining, a registered non-governmental organisation is seeking to increase women participation in mining from the current below 10 percent to about 30 percent in the next five years.

Madam Sakyi-Addo speaking to B&FT at the sidelines of a Women in Mining Corporate Social Responsibility workshop themed: “Ghana’s Mining and Regulatory Framework: Challenges and Opportunities for Enhancing Women Participation.” in Accra, said: “There is a lot that women are doing in the mining sector value chain.

In the next five years we should be hitting about 30 percent women participation in the mining sector. A lot of the private sector large scale mining firms already have gender inclusion programme on going and they are making the effort to employ more women into the sector.”
Outlining measures being pursued by government to attract more women into the mining sector, a Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, urged companies to team up with government to create innovative public-private partnerships that empower women to participate and thrive in the mining industry.

There are  also moves to recruit promising talents and train them in emerging technologies and called on companies to support the development  of talents in education, but it should also act to bridge the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) gender divide.

Mrs Oteng-Gyasi said government is also looking at training to take advantage of the new technologies, adding that the digital revolution is a chance to unlock the economic potential of hundreds of women in the country’s mining industry.

This, she said, government will resource George Grant University of Mines and Technology and the other mining related training institutions to train more women in Automotive Technology to take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution, especially Artificial Intelligence and the use of robotics in mining.

Mrs Oteng-Gyasi said government was also looking at benchmarking Gender Equality in the Mining Sector to track progress.

She said one of the key strategies that would be deployed will be the creation of key gender sensitive indicators, specifically designed to reflect changes in the status and roles of men and women in the mining industry.

This included sex disaggregated data on female and male labour force participation rate, opportunities for professional development and satisfaction with support provided, and percentage of females and males with relevant skills set for employment.

There is also the need to provide legal incentives to enhance women’s access to land and licences in the Minerals and Mining Act, which is currently under review.

“Some of the terms of the Act; something like stability and development provisions, because government as much as possible want to improve the fiscal regime in the mining industry to ensure that we obtain optimum revenue from the mining sector. As well, we look at the women and gender issues and how we can support women in the small scale sector especially.”

Dr Heather Cameron, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, said more commitment was needed to ensure that the indispensable role of women in economic development was realised.
She called for more attention to STEM programme for women to bridge the gap and unleashed the dynamic role of women in the mining sector.

The Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Asanko Gold, Mr Frederick Attakumah, said when more women work in the mining sector, it would help unlock the potential of women in mining.

Rev. Dr Joyce Aryee, Former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, who chaired the workshop, said although some progress had been made towards addressing the imbalance, there was much more left to be done.

Bob Roco Romeo with Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo at the event

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