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Webinar Recording: Gender Gaps & Mining

This webinar focused on women’s participation and voice in decision making about mining, with case studies from Colombia.

By Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)

HOW CAN GOVERNMENTS STRENGTHEN THEIR GOVERNANCE AND POLICY RESPONSES TO ADDRESS GENDER GAPS RELATED TO MINING?

There is growing recognition that not only does the mining sector have different impacts on men and women, but that policy and governance responses to the sector also affect women and men differently.

Statistically, women and girls are more likely to suffer from the negative impacts related to mining, such as water and land pollution or lack of access to water and land, or security, safety and health threats related to increased populations of transient workers and job seekers, such as sexually transmitted diseases or sexual assaults.

This EGP webinar was held on June 18, 2019, and looked at how countries can strengthen the gender component of their response to mining, to improve development outcomes from the mining sector, drawing lessons from the experience with artisanal and small-scale gold and coal mining in Colombia.

Questions addressed:

How are women and girls are affected differently than men and boys by the mining sector?
What policy tools can governments use to better address these gaps?
How has Colombia improved its regulatory and public policy response related to mining from a gender perspective?

speakers:

Anders Arco: Consultant for gender and mining in the Alliance for Responsible Mining and works in the Spanish NGO Solidaridad Internacional.

Javier Blanco: Field Officer at the UN Women Office in Chocó, Colombia.

Luisa Fernanda Bacca: Chief of the Social and Environmental Affairs Office, Colombia's Ministry of Mining and Energy.

Sohinee Mazumdar: Environmental and social governance leader dedicated to human rights and conservation. Sohinee works with local communities and ecosystems working on a range of projects across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

The webinar in English was moderated by Sarah Daitch, UNDP/EGP. The webinar in Spanish was moderated by Christian Felipe Lesmes and Viviana Martínez-Pulido, UNDP Colombia.

webinar recordings

background information:

The joint Swedish Environmental Protection Agency - UNDP Environmental Governance Programme (EGP), in partnership with the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals and Metals (IGF), are developing a training for decision-makers and practitioners on strengthening policy and regulatory responses to gender impacts linked to the mining sector.

Following an interactive gender and mining session at the 14th Annual General Meeting of the IGF held in Geneva in 2018, it was clear that there was strong interest from governments to improve policy responses to gender impacts related to the mining sector.

This webinar aims to introduce initial concepts and topics from the training that is in development, and seek feedback from participants on how the training can be refined and delivered most effectively.

Amazon Rainforest, Sierra Nevada Mountains in Colombia. Credits: iStock.com/Benedek

Footnotes

Cover picture credits: iStock.com/mariusz_prusaczyk

FootNotes

Cover picture credits: iStock.com/mariusz_prusaczyk

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