Engaging with Community Women to Improve Development Outcomes

in the Mining Sector

Lessons Learned from Papua New Guinea

Country context

PNG is a culturally diverse, environmentally rich country with over seven million inhabitants

Mining is a strategic sector in PNG and a key foreign exchange earner

Gender relations within Papua New Guinean communities are largely based on tribal cultures and traditions - heavily patriarchal, women’s traditional subservience has been well established through their social roles

Key issues…complex governance environment in which

mining companies provide many social services, as in some cases government is absent;

transitional environment in which mines will close and must eventually transfer provision of services to government ; and

gender-bias distribution of benefits and risks environment in which women are marginalized.

….and solutions Women in Mining InitiativeGood for development: by promoting inclusive participation

in planning and improving local governance. This creates a strong basis for post-mine sustainable development, and for broader and more equitable long term sharing of local and national revenues from mineral resources.

Good for women: by catalyzing their participation in decision-making, so that their needs and priorities can be identified and addressed;

Good for business: by increasing the effectiveness and equitability of investments in compensation and community development activities, helping to mitigate negative impacts, and improving sustainability of positive impacts. The program has also increased household and community income from women’s business activities that grew out of the training projects.

Lessons Learned• 9 years of WB support for the Women

in Mining Initiative

Women in Mining Conference, 2003• “Women in Mining Vision

Statement” prepared

First lesson : Often women need their own event/consultation if they are to be heard

Second lesson : Give women the right opportunity and they will attend and participate

Third lesson : Examining impacts at the community level is not sufficient, the distribution between men and women also needs to be examined

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Lessons Learned (cont’)

Women in Mining Conference, 2005• 5-year National Action Plan for

Women in the Mining Areas

Fourth lesson : given a well defined process, women’s groups can come up with their own strategies to improve their lives (as opposed to others such as companies or government agencies doing it for them)

Fifth lesson: economic empowerment is only one aspect; the women also seek social empowerment, risk mitigation and support for their well being in terms of health, education, safety and security

Sixth lesson: “bottom up” gender initiatives and improvements can be given legal standing by Government’s endorsing them

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Lessons Learned (cont’)

Self reliance Programs for Women in

Mining/Petroleum Areas – JSDF grant

• more than 1100 people benefitted of training and capacity building

Women in Mining and Petroleum Conference - 2010

Seventh lesson: Gender programs need to address specific needs – for example Cultural and social considerations (e.g tribal fighting and language, education levels), Logistical challenges. Stages of project development (mature vs early stages)

Eighth lesson : Bank staff can empower women’s groups simply by engaging with them and building their trust

Lessons Learned (cont’)- Second Mining Sector TA project

• gender considered into the project design: specific component to mainstream the “women’s” initiatives in the first TA

• increase of funds dedicated to gender activities from about 1% (first Mining TA project) to 15% out of the project proceeds

– Capacity building and training program for women in petroleum areas, donor-financed by Esso Highlands, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil

Ninth lesson : Companies can be key agents of gender improvement in the community. The mining companies found that they were getting better development benefits from their community programs by consulting women and supporting women’s activities

Tenth lesson: A sustainable solution to address gender aspects of the mining sector can work only if all relevant stakeholders are involved.

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What are the results so far?

Gender desks established in all mining companies operating in PNG

Women participation in the negotiation of Memorandum of Agreements between community, company and government regarding the benefits packages (Increase from none in 2003 to 5 in 2010, basically all MoAs negotiated and re-negotiated).

In Ok Tedi mining area, in part attributable to the Bank’s continuing efforts in gender mainstreaming, 10%of the funds for community development are allocated for programs targeting women’s priorities.

Demonstrated changes in behavior at the household and community level: whereas women would not participate in mixed sex conferences in 2003, women were the primary presenters in a major international conference on mining in 2010, and changes in women’s empowerment were reported at the household level.

Changes in the ‘gender mainstreaming’ approach in PNG: success in gender and mining led to the inclusion of gender as one of the two major themes in the CAS; resulted in increased recognition from the government of the gender dimensions in the mining sector through the approval and funding of the 5-year National Action Plan for Women in the Mining Areas.

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Suggestions for Other Projects Listen to women’s voices:

1. Consult separately and appropriately with Women’s Groups on their views of the project and its likely impact on their lives

2. Disaggregate the results of community consultation between men and women

3. Look for key differences in views of women and men to see if they provide new insights for improving project benefits and/or reducing/mitigating project risks

Respond to women’s requests:4. Use what women say and involve them in setting

priorities and designing actions to improve project impacts/reduce project risks (rather than the team deciding what will be best for them)

Empower women leaders to help others in their communities:

5. Include support for women’s groups and for women’s leaders

For more complex projects, start with social mapping of women’s groups to design consultation recognizing key differences between sub-groups (e.g. ethnicity, income, language, religion etc)

Thank you

Adriana Eftimieaeftimie@ifc.org

For Gender and EI Program please contact Katherine Heller

kheller@worldbank.org