Minister Fights For Women In Mining

The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, has called on the various stakeholders to consider mainstreaming gender in the grant of mining leases and concessions under a decentralised scheme, to make it easy to process and acquire a mining lease within a short time.

He said the Sustainable Development Goals recognise women’s land rights as an explicit, crosscutting catalyst for ending poverty, reaching food security and enhanced nutrition.

He noted that the treaty and other conventions have been ratified by many countries and integrated into Ghana’s domestic laws.

He stressed that mainstreaming gender is a prerequisite in land restoration.

The Regional Minister was speaking at a round table discussion on gender issues in post-mining land restoration.

It was to provide the platform for information and experience sharing, networking, and the adoption of best practices to improve the traditional ways of handling gender issues in post-mining land restoration.

He noted that the Western Region is one of the areas in Ghana with rich mineral resources where mining has been a major occupation for multinationals and artisanal miners for decades.

“Therefore we, as stakeholders in the mining and land restoration space, must engage in a dialogue to evaluate the situation and propose best practices for policy considerations,” he noted.

He said usually, the focus is on mining companies that plan and execute a mining concession. “However, also disturbing is the issue of small-scale unregistered operators often referred to as ‘galamsey operators’. These actors are not well-regulated, and may not engage in mine planning and closure, hence may not commence any land restoration efforts at all,” he indicated.

The Regional Minister therefore stressed the need for modalities to restore vast degraded forest lands by illegal miners, to help combat the effects of climate alter.

“I want to task the management of the University of Mines and innovation (UMaT) and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to design tailor-made projects and programmes through research and policy proposals to restore degraded lands in the Western Region,” he stated.

He mentioned some of the approaches to gender mainstreaming as supporting gender-responsive policies, laws, regulations, and interventions that protect and enhance women’s rights.

The minister was convinced that policy proposals that would be issued at the end of the programme will reflect the needs and aspirations of the inhabitants in the mining communities, particularly, women.