Addressing Gendered Impacts of Mining through Capacity Building

Mongolia

By Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)

December 1^st, 2021

BY ELIZAVETA NIDZELSKAYA (lead author) and AGATHA GORSKI, with support from YAT TUNG WONG*

Since its transition to a market-based economy, Mongolia has experienced a mining boom, earning it the nickname "Minegolia". Mining exports of copper, gold, coal, molybdenum, fluorspar, uranium, tin, and tungsten account for over 25% of its GDP and in 2011, Mongolia was the world’s fastest growing economy. However, the boom has also engendered negative environmental and social impacts, especially in herding communities living close to mines, as mining threatens traditional livelihoods by contaminating water sources, encroaching on pastureland, and degrading soil.

Crucially, these impacts manifest themselves differently in the lives of men and women, often due to embedded cultural norms. Traditionally, women in herder communities are in charge of household activities such as cooking and cleaning. This makes them more exposed to the environmental risks, such as contaminated water. Not only is this a health risk, but it contributes to the growing scarcity of potable water, forcing women to travel increasingly longer distances to get access to a safe source. The rise of mining has also led to a surge in gender-based violence. High, and growing, rates of alcoholism among miners is a contributing factor, as well as the influx of internal and international migrants who travel to work in rural areas and create a demand for prostitution.

Copper mine in Erdenet city, northern Mongolia. Photo: iStock.com/DieterMeyrl

Furthermore, as pastureland becomes scarcer and more degraded, conflict between herding households who rely on this land for their income begins to rise. Female-headed households are typically the ones that lose out, since they struggle to maintain their access rights to land, as these are still traditionally negotiated by men. In Bornuur soum, one of the communities participating in the Women's Land Tenure Security (WOLTS) project, 26% of households are headed by women, most of them widows. "There are some cases we’ve come across where mining companies, when they wanted to expand, it’s almost like they have an easy area to expand into because they know that women-headed households living near their boundaries won’t get supported", Elizabeth Daley, leader of the WOLTS project, told us.

Women are often most vulnerable to the impacts of mining, but men too suffer specific gendered impacts. "Loss of land and livelihoods causes a lot of rural women to migrate into urban centres and the capital city", Daley told us. Women may no longer want to trade their urban lifestyle for the harsher, more physically demanding life of a herder, making it more difficult for male unmarried herders to find a partner.

This is further exacerbated by the widening gap between education for men and women. Since the 1990s, when livestock was privatised, boys were more likely than girls to drop out of school to stay on and look after the animals. While illiteracy is not uncommon for male herders in their mid-to-late 30s, women are increasingly better educated, and so unwilling to move back to their communities and marry the men who have been left behind. Daley reminded us that "unfortunately, there is a widespread equation, actually all over the world, that 'gender means women' – if you have a gender issue it must be a women’s issue, and if you have gender inequality it automatically means it’s women who are negatively impacted – and that is not our experience at all".

Mongolian young girl playing with yak in Central Mongolia. Photo: iStock.com/hadynyah

The Women’s Land Tenure Security (WOLTS) Project

"They are using the training when they talk to mining companies, when they have official community meetings. The champions are the ones who stand up, ask questions and try to make a difference, talking about gender issues and protecting vulnerable groups of people". This is how Narangerel Yansanjav, executive director of People Centred Conservation (PCC), described to us the outcome of the WOLTS "gender champions" pilot project.

After years of rigorous research in several pastoralist communities in Mongolia, the WOLTS capacity-building pilot project was launched to address the tenure security issues affecting women, as well as other vulnerable groups. Communities were asked to nominate "gender champions", both men and women, who they thought would be the best representatives for them according to rigorous selection criteria. The sessions that followed included workshops on land tenure laws, vigorous group discussions and role-play activities, integrating a participatory approach throughout and designed to build champions’ confidence to speak about a range of gender issues.

"Role-plays were one of the great successes of the training programme, with champions putting a lot of thought and passion into their performances", reads the progress report. "Strengths of this approach included giving confidence to quieter individuals, forcing participants to change their perspective on an issue by portraying a character of the opposite sex, encouraging team work and discussing sensitive issues in a more relaxed environment". One participant said: "I really loved the role-plays. They helped us to dig down on the issues we have in our lives. Also they were fun".

Another successful example of capacity building empowering women is the Sustainable Artisanal Mining Project (SAM), led by the Swiss Development Agency. It is aimed at helping artisanal miners to formalise their activities and provide leadership and managerial skills, such understanding the artisanal mining legal framework, occupational health and safety and business development. "The project not only informed us, but facilitated us to get a non-governmental organization certificate, seal and stamps, and other necessary documents", says Saruul Jargal, one of the women who participated. "They even selected me as a facilitator, so I was paid from the project". Faced with a lack of employment opportunities, almost 20% of the rural workforce in Mongolia participates in artisanal mining, which is illegal if not formalised and rife with health and safety risks, child labour and violations of human rights.

Myadagbadam Chilkhaa, another female beneficiary who was elected leader and chair of her artisanal mining organisation, now one of the most successful and widely recognised in Mongolia, said: "I have good computer skills that I use to write project proposals, and even got a grant for a small project through the SAM Project trainings. Thanks to it, my organization runs a small sewing workshop and employs three single mothers sewing uniforms for big mining companies". Chilkhaa’s organisation has also rehabilitated land abandoned by other miners. Thanks to SAM, many artisanal miners see themselves no longer as victims, but instead as "rights holders" who have learnt to claim and access their rights from the state.

Capacity building projects have been able to inform people about laws, the rights that they are entitled to and strategies to defend them. They have shone a light on gender-based differences, and how they present an obstacle to protecting community land and natural resources. They have also taught important skills such as IT or entrepreneurship. Crucially, however, they have given people the confidence that they often lack when standing up to mining authorities. As Elizabeth Daley poignantly put it: "Poorer people, disadvantaged people, marginalised people, less educated people - you’re asking them to step up to figures of authority, to power-holders…and you’re asking them to ask questions, not always even to directly challenge them but just to ask for information. People often don’t have confidence that they have the right to ask questions".

Mongolian woman milking a yak, Central Mongolia. Photo: iStock.com/hadynyah

* PREPARED BY THE YOUNG ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS: Elizaveta Nidzelskaya (LEAD AUTHOR) and Agatha Gorski, WITH SUPPORT FROM Yat Tung Wong. COPYEDITED BY JESS CHUA (UNV).

The Young Environmental Journalists campaign aims at raising awareness and fostering youth engagement in environmental and human rights protection in the mining sector in four resource-rich countries: Colombia, Kenya, Mongolia and Mozambique.

This initiative is organized by the joint Swedish Environmental Protection Agency – UNDP Environmental Governance Programme (EGP) in collaboration with the United Nations Volunteers’ online volunteering service and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this story are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the United Nations, including UNDP or the UN Member States.

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