1. Artisanal Mining and Gender: case of Mongolia
P. Bolormaa, M&E officer
SDC funded
“Sustainable, Artisanal, Small Scale Mining” Project

2. Outline
Overview of Gender issues in Mongolia
Gender and ASM

3. Gender and development
Global Human Development Report 1995 argued that development, if not engendered, is endangered.
If women cannot benefit from development and progress, it is an unfair and discriminatory process.
Limiting opportunities of women in social and economic life hinders society’s overall progress.

4. Gender Equality in Mongolia
National Program for the Advancement of Women” (1996)
National Program on Gender Equality (2002)
Parliament resolution (2005) on MGDs Mongolia
Goal 3: Ensuring Gender equality
to improve their social, professional and cultural level of Mongolian women
and to promote their participation in the development progress.

5. Overview
GDI : , i.e. no substantial disparities between men and women
Women % men % of Mongolia’s population
Average life expectancy: women ~ 70 years; men ~ 64 years
75 % of women aged 8-22 years study in schools
less boys aged between 8-22 years study in schools
Women earn income equal to 2/3 of the income earned by men
Rank: 94th out of 144 countries in the world

6. Education
Percentage of the population with educational level higher than complete secondary among population aged 15 and over

7. Gender inequality in the education sector
Reasons
More investment in girls’ education
Imbalance in sex ratio among teachers
Livestock privatization
Work in informal sector
Consequences
Ability to access information is limited
Increased family divorces, alcohol use, crimes
Less opportunity to find jobs
Less family, social and political participation

8. Gender inequality in employment
Women work in low-paid, low-skilled positions for long hours in the informal sector.
Private companies tend not to employ women because they have to be offered more favorable social welfare conditions than men.

9. Gender inequality in political sector
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)
Mongolia ranked 62nd out of 78 countries.
The low level of GEM demonstrates low participation of women in policy and decision making and their limited authority.
In 2002, an index that measures gender equality of men and women in opportunities in economic and political areas

10. Gender and violence Causes: Difficulties of daily living,
Unemployment,
Poverty
Alcoholism
Note: every third women and every second
child in Mongolia is subject to some kind of
violence, and every tenth woman is beaten.
Consequences:
Deep psychological crisis (even suicide)
Undermines the social status
Reduces participation in community work,
Loss of self-confidence

11. Gender and ASM
A livelihoods strategy adopted primarily in rural areas
Artisanal mining is a poverty driven informal activity exploiting gold, coal and fluorspar
It provides the income for over 100,000 miners
over 100 places of 80 sums, 19 aimags.
Due to a lack of legal and policy instruments these miners are marginalized and living at the border of the society.
Mining represents the most promising income opportunity. However, ASM activities are often viewed negatively by government, big companies, environmentalists and others. The concern range from the use of child labour and the potential for environmental damage (use of mercury and cyanide) to the use of ASM revenue to finance conflicts, the social disruption, the high incidence of prostitution, and the possible spread of STDs, HIV/AIDS where migrant workers are involved. Most of these miners –men, women, or children are rural and poor. From a livelihood perspective, for many people it never provides more than a subsistence wage, so its actual contribution is often limited.

12. Artisanal miners

13. Characteristics of ASM activities
Use of rudimentary techniques
Hazardous working environment
Low standards of occupational safety: accidents, injures…..
High health impact: dust, noise, extreme cold, poor water sanitation, insecure food, use of toxic chemicals
Highly disorganized, outside of legal environment
Significant impact on environment: river and air pollution, soil, waste …….

14. Case: Zaamar sum of Tuv aimag
Artisanal miners: men, women and children working in groups of 4-7 people
Age : years old
Total number: ~ ; number of women ~ 5000
Education level: University degree -12 %
college degree - 19 %, high school education - 38%
secondary school education – 27 %
primary school education – 4%.
27.6 % - former herders, 9.2 % - formers farmers, 31.6 % former government officials, 27.6 % unemployed people

15. Men and women’s roles in ASM
Women and men do equal work in mining
Women play major role in informal mining: leader of the group, conflict mediator….
Ger shops and many small businesses are managed by the women.

16. Multiple roles of women
Mining activities:
Ore sack transportation
Gold separation using water
Initial digging
Up lifting ore sacks from m deep holes
Working inside deep m holes
Working inside deep vertical tunnels
Mercury usage
Crushing / milling / sluicing
Housewives
Food preparation
Fetching water
Wood preparation
Child care
Health care of members of households
Business
Ger shop owners

17. Needs of artisanal miners
Legal environment – 79 %
Food and water security – 61 %
Good protective clothing – 45 %
Health services – 39 %
Electricity – 31 %
Education – 23 %
Access to information – 21 %
Ref: The living conditions of the informal miners in Zaamar, survey report 2005

18. Conclusion
Artisanal and Small –scale mining issues are important and complex;
Therefore, governments and development agencies should take the leading role in addressing them.
It is important function of Government to mainstream in policies and programmes community development approach

19. Steps to be taken Adopt gender sensitive approach because women are:
- of fundamental importance in terms of food and health security,
- critical to community stability, cohesiveness and morale,
- have a demonstrated capacity to drive POSITIVE CHANGE.
Develop collective capacity of miners to contribute to sustainable development;
Establish good relationship between miners and other stakeholders.

20. Recommendations
To create an enabling legal environment for artisanal miners
Capacity development programmes for artisanal miners:
- Educational program on occupational safety issues
- Environmental awareness programs
- Safe mercury use awareness programmes
- Health education programmes
Mining community development programme

21. Thank you for your attention
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