Governance Challenges in artisinal and small scale mining in West Africa
Lead Researcher: Dr Natalia Yakovleva
Partners: Dr J Andrew Grant, Queen's University, Canada;
Dr Frank Nyame, University of Ghana, Accra.
Background
The artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector employs up to 4 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. The sector provides important source of non-farm income for unskilled and semi-skilled labourers and supports households in the conditions of high unemployment rates in rural Africa. The ASM sector also provides opportunities for local economic and business development via supporting a wide variety of petty-traders and merchants, and supplies much-needed foreign exchange and tax revenue for governments.
Although the ASM sector in an important component of the economy in many West African states, it tends to have a deleterious impact on the environment, human health and social unrest. Furthermore, ASM is linked with dangerous working conditions, unreliable remuneration, child labour, gender discrimination, and conflicts between illegal ASM operators and large-scale mining companies.
This research project will analyse the extent to which multi-stakeholder regional governance initiatives can address the combined lack of state capacity and political will in order to promote human security and environmental sustainability in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector in two Commonwealth member states, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
