Gender Justice in Mining and Licit/Illicit Financial Flows in Africa
Statement
Africa Mining Vision and ECOWAS Minerals Development Policy
3-7 November, Accra, Ghana
We are feminist activists and allies gathered at the ‘Policy Dialogue on the African Mining Vision and
ECOWAS Mining Development Plan’ and ‘Policy Strategy Workshop on Illicit Financial Flows and
Africa’ held on November, 6-7 and 10-12, 2014 by Third World Network-Africa. Based on recent
economic and political trends in Africa, as well as specific discussions at these two workshops with
experts including policy makers, civil society organisations and trade unions, we offer the following
analyses and targeted proposals.
Africa has been marked by higher mineral commodity prices largely fed by demand from China, the
workshop of the world, which shows signs of slowing growth. To date Africa’s development is
underpinned by attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in the mining sector. The focus
of African economies, on the export of raw materials and the import of processed goods, directly
undermines the wellbeing and livelihoods of most Africans, especially women. Economic
liberalisation has made our economies vulnerable to external shocks, as shown during the recent
global economic crisis. We call for the structural transformation of African economies, especially
production relations, with emphasis on women’s work. Addressing Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) must
be part of this.
Efforts to stem IFFs predominantly focus on halting capital flight and repatriating capital to African
states. In the context of widespread social and gender inequity, deepening poverty, multiple crises
and weak social infrastructure, a broadened and refocused discourse on IFFs is necessary. In addition
to capital flight, African development is further undermined because surplus derived from extractive
industries in particular has not been sufficiently reinvested in the domestic economy. Exorbitant
profits are harvested across the African continent at the expense of worker wages, not least the
wages of women. Additionally, Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) usually include articles on
transfers and appropriation that allow investment companies to protect and repatriate their profits,
further constraining African states’ abilities to regulate transnational corporations and to stem
capital flight.
Strategies for structural transformation should develop and implement the following:
 Investigations of commercial transactions that shape production relations and wider
economic, political and social structures that perpetuate the outflow of resources and
entrench social inequity, environmental degradation, and insecure and unsafe work
conditions that disproportionately affect mining communities, especially women.
 Support states to provide laws and policies to redistribute surplus, reinvest in the productive
sector, and protect human and women’s rights. African states should lead the crafting of
alternative development strategies, focused on domestic production rather than export, in
addition to strengthening technology and indigenous knowledge, ensure decent work,
improve livelihoods and promote social wellbeing.
 Strengthen state legislation and institutions to challenge multinational corporations that use
trade mispricing, mis-invoicing, tax havens, and other tactics that lead to capital flight.
 Review BITs and investment policies to protect the natural environment and peoples’ rights
especially the rights of women who are the most vulnerable.
Generally, the working conditions of mine workers are insecure, unhealthy and unsafe, while
artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM), 40-50% of whom are women, work in worse conditions.
Persistent social and gender inequality breeds sexual and gender-based violence in societies at large,
as well as in homes and workplaces.
We therefore make the following recommendations:
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Implement explicit policies with clear targets to ensure job creation, a living wage, decent
work, women’s employment in mining and protection of the right to unionise.
Recognise and measure care work in mining communities, and so improve government and
corporate social service provision, public utilities and compensation.
Develop and strengthen laws and policies by accountable, women-led structures to
investigate and effectively prosecute gender violence cases, as well as to offer additional
forms of support such as psychosocial care.
As part of a broad and strong commitment to sexual and reproductive health and rights,
states must guarantee women’s rights to contraception, post-exposure prophylaxis and
abortion. Child maintenance and care, health care, scholarships and psychosocial support
must be institutionalised in workplaces and society at large.
Mining operations, whether small-scale, artisanal or large-scale, pollute the natural environment,
with both short- and long-term negative impacts. Mining companies use and produce large
quantities of toxic and dangerous substances that pollute the ground, air and water sources, causing
diseases and exacerbating poverty. Voluntary initiatives to ensure transparency, such as the
Extractives Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) have not
effectively addressed these challenges.
Therefore we recommend that:
 Human rights and environmental impact assessments must be a precondition to the
commencement of any mining activity with transparency and free public access to
information.
 Companies must have closure bonds and closure plans as part of their contracts, to ensure
adequate funds for cleaning and remediation of mining sites, safe disposal of wastes, and
the establishment of perpetual monitoring and remediation processes that include
accountability and grievance mechanisms, with women involved and provided throughout.
 Communities and women must be consulted in assessing mining permits, in transparent and
accountable consultative processes
Multinationals, especially mining companies are closely linked to illicit financial flows from Africa,
which have impeded the financing of local production and social infrastructure. As a result, revenue
from taxes, domestic investments and wages for ordinary employees suffer when billions of dollars
are moved to tax havens. States compensate through regressive Value Added Tax (VAT), which
disproportionately disadvantages the most vulnerable, especially poor women. Drastic cuts on
health and education are also imposed, where most women in the formal sector are employed,
thereby increasing the disproportionate burden of care work.
We therefore make the following recommendations:
 Set targets of the share of revenues for mining communities, especially women, with clear
mechanisms and guidelines on receipts and accountability systems
 Compensation must be ensured for mining communities, especially for women’s kitchen
gardens, subsistence food agriculture and increased burden of care work
 Miners, and especially women, in ASM urgently need support for land acquisition, training
on environmentally safer techniques and health and safety measures, in addition to access
to finance at reasonable rates
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Implement progressive tax systems that shifts the burden of taxes from the consumption of
people living in poverty to those with higher incomes, especially corporations
The AMV and ECOWAS Minerals Development Policy (EMDP) are key components of the structural
transformation agenda and combating illicit financial flows. We also recognise challenges of
implementation, including the omission of gender equity.
Therefore, we recommend:
 African governments must finance the implementation of the AMV and EMDP.
 Constituencies such as women’s organisations, trade unions, faith-based groups and other
marginalised constituencies must be mobilised to meaningfully participate in these
processes
The following organisations endorse the statement:
Action Aid International
Agenda for Change (A4C), Kenya
Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), South Africa
Association Citoyenne de Défense des Intérêts Collectifs - Cameroun
Centre for Democracy and Development -West Africa
Centre for Trade Policy and Development, Zambia
Development Alternatives with Women in a New Era (DAWN)
Engender, South Africa
Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria
Inter Pares, Canada
Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), Ghana
Network from Movements for Justice and Development, Sierra Leone
Regions Refocus 2015
Social Change Research Unit, University of Johannesburg
Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), Uganda
Tax Justice Network-Africa, Kenya
Zambia Tax Platform, Zambia
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