MAWIMA unveils plan to empower women miners

By Gloria Mbwana

The Malawi Women in Mining   (MAWIMA) says it has come up with a strategic plan to empower more women miners so that they are able execute sustainable and profitable mining ventures which will help them move out of the poverty trap.

MAWIMA President Emma Adam said at the official launching ceremony of the plan in Lilongwe that the strategy will empower women miners by addressing the challenges that the sector is facing on gender perspective.

“The objective of MAWIMA is to increase women’s voice and participation in the mining/ extractive industry in Malawi to contribute towards and enhance women’s economic empowerment through sustainable mining and job creation in the extractive industry,” said Adam.

She said core strategies have been identified as critical to implementing the strategic plan which include research; evidenced-based advocacy and campaigning; policy and practice influencing network and capacity building.

Adam said MAWIMA has developed the plan with financial support from Oxfam Malawi after observing that the extractive industry presents a catalytic opportunity for women’s economic empowerment through enterprise development in and around the sector.

“However, evidence has shown that despite increase of women involvement in dealing with gemstones, mining and selling minerals, they still remain insignificant in the mining industry,” she said.

Adam explained that the plan is also focused on sustainable mining because Malawi’s possible mining boom poses other potential risks (social, cultural, political, economic and environmental) including increased gender inequality as well as loss of livelihoods through force displacement, land tenure, conflicts between companies and communities, the pollution of waterways and loss of forests.

The MAWIMA strategic plan will be implemented over a five year period starting from 2019 to 2023 and will guide the organisation’s operations and priorities in influencing practices and policies governing the country’s mining sector.

MAWIMA was formed in 1999 to enhance women participation in the Mining Sector as a means for women’s economic empowerment.

Currently, the organisation has over 60 members and is represented in all the three geographical     regions of Malawi.

Adam said since its formation, the organization has been failing to fully implement its programmes due to unavailability of funds and, therefore, thanked Oxfam Malawi for funding the development of the plan.

 “For 19 years, finances were a problem hence we had a lot of challenges as even the banks failed to give us loans as they consider mining business to be risky. We are, therefore, thankful to Oxfam for coming up with a sponsorship package for our activities including the formulation of the plan,” she said.

Chairperson of Natural Resources Justice Network (NRJN) KossamMunthali, who was the guest of honour at the ceremony, called on the government to support MAWIMA’s efforts by regulating the ASM subsector to ensure that Malawians including women miners are the major beneficiaries of natural resource extraction.

“It is high time the government organized ASMs including women miners into cooperatives to train them in technical, marketing and legal issues,” said Munthali.

He said the fact that MAWIMA has existed for up to 19 years in the country’s challenging environment is a clear testimony that local women miners have passion for their trade and only need government support to prosper in their business.

Margret Nkhoma a member of MAWIMA said women ASMs are encountering a number of problems including lack of capital, reliable markets and proper mining equipment.

“However, we see high potential in extractive sector, and it is high time the government moved in to support us,” said Nkhoma.

In her remarks, another MAWIMA member Margret Fachi encouraged fellow women miners to work hard in their trade citing that she is now a millionaire out of sand mining.

The launch of MAWIMA’S strategic plan attracted different stakeholders including Oxfam, NRJN, Nyasa Mining Cooperative, Export Development Fund (EDF) and Department of Mines in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining.

Oxfam Malawi Coordinator for Extractive Governance ElyvinChawingaNkhonjera said her organization made a commitment to support MAWIMA because it wants to see more women benefitting from the sector.

“Though there are more women in the sector as compared to men, the latter have more influence so we want to work with MAWIMA to empower women so that they also play a key role in the sector,” she said.

30 thoughts on “MAWIMA unveils plan to empower women miners

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