Female salt miners in Uganda take the lead with British Government's help

The project, funded by the British Government, was put in place in order to tackle the inequalities that currently blight the salt mining areas of Uganda, where women make up 70% of the workforce but receive 30% than men for their product and own only 6% of salt pans.

In order to address this situation, CASM (with support from DFID) set up a campaign to challenge the negative attitudes towards women in the industry, both at community level and in the authorities. This involved putting in place training workshops and producing a handbook for every miner, which dealt with issues of sexual and gender violence and the importance of participation of women in leadership roles.

These changes have already had some ground-breaking and far reaching effects in Uganda. Some 20 local associations have been formed, most with at least one woman in a leadership role for the first time ever. Female miners have gained a voice at a national level too - as a result of the training the National Small Scale Mining Forum took steps to make sure that there were three women on the seven member executive committee.

Most significantly, because of the education and awareness training given by CASM, many women are now looking at moving away from the mining industry into safer and more financially rewarding alternatives. Many are beginning to save their money to invest in small businesses such as motorcycle taxis and shops, or setting up in industries such as fish farming and tree planting.

This is a clear example of the difference that CASM projects are making in artisanal mining across the world - by taking small steps to create awareness, the communities are provided with the tools to dig themselves out of poverty.

Minister Gareth Thomas today welcomed the work that CASM does in this area:

"The 100 million people who depend on small scale and artisanal mining for their livelihoods, including millions of women and children, are extremely poor and vulnerable to exploitation.

"I am pleased to support CASM's work in this area. It is only by making the sector more efficient  and environmentally aware and above all, by ensuring that artisanal miners get a fairer deal from mine to market that we can unlock the potential contribution that small scale and artisanal mining can make to growth and development in poor countries."

The CASM annual conference is taking place in Maputo, Mozambique, between 8-14 September. CASM was launched in 2001 to try and transform small scale and artisanal mining from a source of conflict and poverty in developing countries into a catalyst for sustainable growth and development. It is a partnership DFID and the World Bank.

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Source: DFID