Meet the Two Leaders of Tanzania Women Miners Association

Martha Bitwale: The  former  Chairperson of Tanzania Women Miners Association:

She is a long time activist of rights of Women miners.  Her passion on women's rights and the struggles to organize women in mining to advance in the mining sector is known among most women miners in Tanzania. She is a witness of the transformation in mining sector and how it accommodates women in Tanzania. Her story as a woman miner, leader, a mother, an activist, business woman and her passion to engage and organize other women in the sector has contributed a lot to the women in mining struggles today. She is calling for the "Re-Focus" on the priorities of women in Mining Tanzania.

Eunice Negele: The Chairperson of Tanzania  Women Miners Association

She is woman miner based in Tanga Region, the activist, a mother  and  Leader. She works with more than 400 women in 11 districts of Tanzania to advocate for the rights of women miners and women living in mining areas.

The election for the new chairperson will be held this year. TAWOMA needs a feminist leader, who holds the deepest of values for justice and equality. This leader will need to work with women in two levels; supporting  women miners to build self consciousness and self esteem so that they understand and stay  on top of their challenging context (2) Linking women miners and women in mining with different resources, networks, struggles and movement so that they effect change.

Who will be the next?

How Further Do women Need to Go?

Tanzania is endowed with a vast and very valuable extractive resource industry consisting of forestry, petroleum and minerals. It is ranked fourth in terms of diversity and richness of mineral resources in Africa, after South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.  This includes a wide range of minerals from gold, diamond, colored stones, industrial minerals and gas. Tanzania mining sector is fast growing at an annual average of 10% since 1999 with an average 4% contribution to the GDP.

Mining development has both positive and negative impacts for communities. A growing body of evidence shows that a gender bias exists in the distribution of risks and benefits of mining projects. Benefits, which include employment, income, and compensation, typically accrue to men, and costs, such as family/social breakdowns, cultural harm and environmental degradation, fall most heavily on women and children

Mineral extractions has a lot to do with women than signing MDAs, calculating revenues, or provision of poor health services, water, food, school, road etc in the name of CSR. For long time women movement in Tanzania has touched the subject of extractive but mostly in relation to land grabs, violence against women, environmental degradations but very little efforts have been made by the state to answer to those demands.

Women movement in Tanzania needs to go further to understand the sector and question different gendered issues in relation to extractive  such as Women’s Unseen Contribution to the Extractives Industries and  Their Unpaid Labour, land and food sovereignty in relation to extractive, impact of extractives on women's bodies, sexuality and autonomy etc. (please visithttp://www.womin.org.za/papers.html)

Women's voice  is mostly missing in the CSOs movement on extractive industry. It is a matter of priority in the current resistances around the country and unless women bring in their priorities, the change will be only seen on one side. Individual women and  women organizations and entities, need to go further to challenge the status quo and address women's priorities in relation to extractive. It has to go further than provision of services and seed and food and shelter and clothes and training and skills, it has to go than numbers and statistics and percentage, It has to go  further to women taking active roles on the fronts of the resistance in the extractive industry

Women in Mining Leadership Development: Emerging of Women Organizations in Mining Areas

One of the important aspects of women in leadership development program carried out by HakiMadini is to facilitate women in mining areas to self organize so that they  claim their rights, influence the political agenda and advance their livelihood. Formation of women organization as a safe space for discussion, prioritizing women  agendas, seek support and advance their collective voice is a step towards advocating for the equality in extractive sector.

Two community based organizations in Mererani and Singida were founded as a result of women in mining leadership development. Women saw the need to come together in a platform where they could share their success and challenges and engage others in the struggle towards equality in the extractive sector.

Women in the meeting

Kikundi cha Wanawake Wachimbaji Tanzanite Mirerani (KIWATAMITA) and Amani Group in Singida are community based Organizations formed and led by Women miners. They are working towards raising awareness on impact of extractives in community around mining areas, supporting women miners, prevemtion and response on violence against women and children in mining areas and economic empowerment.

Women in Mining Leadership Development Round II- Building an alternative leadership in mining Sector

Mining sector is considered masculine sector in many parts of the world, which by the notion itself it excludes women.Women  in the mining sector takes secondary roles. In Artisanal  and small scale mining, most women work in providing services such as food, water, sex, and housing. Those who own mining pits are sometimes unable to participate fully because of the nature of the work and stereotypes that comes with it. In industrial mining, women are employed as administrators, cleaners, cook and security guards. In these positions, it is difficult for women to advance in leadership positions or participate fully in making decisions about laws, policies and practices that affect them

It is through this reality that HakiMadini initiated Women in Mining Leadership Development.The journey takes one year in three modules. in the first module, participants work with facilitator to advance their self development as women leaders. The five days session explores values and responsibility of women leaders, working with individuals to unlock their potentials as leaders from within. In the second module, participants are trained on laws, policies and regulations related to mining and advocacy skills. The third module is a practical one where participants meet with policy makers for lobbying for the change of policies and practices in mining sector towards women. In between the modules, participants are provided with different opportunities to learn different skills. this includes communication skills, advocacy and lobbying in practice, organizational development, monitoring of policies and practices in the mining sector etc.

 Self development: Women Leaders learning using colours and drawings

Round II of women in Mining leadership development started at the end of 2013, bringing together 20 women from four mining communities of Tanzania. This intake aimed at building on round I and create a more visible women movement in the mining sector

Participants of Women In mining Leadership development round II in plenary discussion

 The leadership in many ways and in most cases is known and understood as position and power; the quality that comes with it is   often mistaken with orders, ranks and places. HakiMadini is working with women to build women leaders who take charge from the very foundation stage. Leadership that starts with an individual from within, changing perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, practices, values and behaviours that undermine women advancement in the sector. A kind of leadership which inspires, motivate, engage, mobilize and facilitate transformation in mining sector. The feminist leadership which will place women at the core.

Women Miners Leadership Development: Round 1

 Learning is Fun-Tastic - Women Learning Conversation skills by picture drawing

 Everybody is a facilitator; Mjomba Hussein presenting

 Bahati Msuya: One of the participants of Women Miners Leadership Development

 Group Photo: Women Miners Leadership Development Round 1

Alando and Lulu: Participant and Facilitator

Women In Mining Leadership Development; The story So far (2): The Incentive for Organizing.

 Women Group meeting  In Londoni Singida

Marietha addressing the group

Women come together for different reasons, in most cases in Tanzania, women organize through self help groups,  for supporting each other financially. Ready cash in form of merry-go-round is  one of the  incentive to organize. In rare cases, women self organize for discussing issues that affect women such as domestic violence, health, services, policy, laws etc. After organizing for financial support, in most cases the groups formalizes into Serving And Credit Schemes. The formalization   lives behind women who cannot “formally” meet the criteria for Credit, and sometimes “uneducated” as it becomes sophisticated with systems and rules. The spirit of organizing goes down and replaced by money and power, with technical people coming in.

In case of Singida where eight women participated in the Leadership Development course organized by HakiMadini, women have found a new incentive for organizing. At first, they started as a servings and credit group, it started formalizing and they learned that most women were left behind. One woman named Marietha re-organized the group and facilitated women in identifying the reason for coming together apart from money. They identified violence against women in mining areas as a major challenge that hinders them to participate fully in economic activities. “It comes in different forms, women are facing domestic violence in their homes, and sexual harassment in public and physical and emotional violence while at work in mining sites  Its like we do not have a safe place to be. There is no respect for women because there is no defined values as community. Most people are migrants and everybody is here temporarily…” Says Marietha. That is a reason why women came together to prevent and respond to women human rights abuses in the mining area of Londoni and Sambaru in Singida.

Eleven women from the initial group formed and raised an issue, that they needed a new incentive. They started mobilizing other women, mostly by identifying those who have faced violence. They helped other women see the connection between violence and women poverty by pointing out specific examples. Then they invited them to join their monthly discussion on state of violence in mining area and strategies for prevention and response. In these meetings women have chance to share stories and experiences and look at violence against women in new perspective. They intend to grow together as a group, supporting each other emotionally while the Servings and credit schemes support those who need money for their business. 

It’s a process and it takes small steps!

Women in Mining Leadership Development: The Story so far: (1)

Initiated in the past eighteen months, Women leadership Fellowship Course took place on   Arusha and Singida. The course was organized by HakiMadini, through Gender and Mining program, and it brought together a total of 35 women from five regions of Tanzania, namely Arusha, Mwanza, Manyara, Singida and Tanga. They are women activists engaging directly and indirectly in mining and who are affected by  exclusion within the sector.

The course focused on strengthening their personal values as women leaders and facilitating their leadership skills in the context movement building. Their activism spirit, influence within the communities they come from and engagement in the mining sector will bring about the change and shifts in the society. They are bringing a new form of leadership which depends mainly on values, accountability, responsibility and facilitation while responding to the traditional ways of leadership which focuses on the position and power. The course is a landmark for the community based movement led by women in the mining sector. It helps women to achieve the right attitude for leadership in learning societies, learn to face hardship and grow through adversity, courage, patience, dedication, perseverance.

Women in mining sector and in mining areas encounter challenges everyday. Apart from sharing their communities’struggles over limited resources like water, land or jobs, many systematically face discrimination simply by virtue of being female. This includes physical and sexual violence, being kept out of school, disproportionate vulnerability to HIV infection and lack of access to property and other rights.

HakiMadini believes that women in mining communities possess the collective power to change their lives, their communities and the world we live in. Just as they face daily challenges, they are continually developing innovative, effective ways to improve their lives. By bringing together their wisdom and creativity, women are leading change. HakiMadini is supporting these women   by empowering them to acquire skills and to enable them to provide leadership on the issues that concern them. It offers engaging and dynamic activities to motivate and enable women to believe in their abilities to catalyse change and to mobilise others to do the same. It is a flexible tool for learning and exploring issues from human rights and violence against women to body image, self-esteem and developing leadership skills.

Women in Mining Tanzania: Developing Women in Mining Leadership Skills; The ...

Women in Mining Tanzania: Developing Women in Mining Leadership Skills; The ...: Background T anzania is endowed with a vast and very valuable extractive resource industry consisting of forestry, petroleum and mine...

Developing Women in Mining Leadership Skills; The HakiMadinis' Approach.

Background

Tanzania is endowed with a vast and very valuable extractive resource industry consisting of forestry, petroleum and minerals. It is ranked fourth in terms of diversity and richness of mineral resources in Africa, after South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.  This includes a wide range of minerals from gold, diamond, colored stones, industrial minerals and gas. Tanzania mining sector is fast growing at an annual average of 10% since 1999 with an average 3% contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Mining development has both positive and negative impacts for communities in Tanzania. A growing body of evidence shows that, gender bias exists in the distribution of risks and benefits of mining projects. Benefits, which include employment, income, and compensation, typically accrue to men, and costs such as family/social breakdowns, cultural harm and environmental degradation, fall most heavily on women and children

Despite women significance in mining sector, women receive minimal attention by researchers, development programs and governments. Although there are  many studies in mining, there is rarely very little quantification of how mining impacts on women and children. There is no clear segregation of the benefits of the sector towards this unprivileged group.  Laws and policies provide no avenue for voices of women in the sector governance. Lack of different skills in mining, poor technology lack of access to information and strong and organized leadership limits women participation in policy reforms within mining debates  and processes

The Approach

HakiMadini is supporting women in mining through empowering   them to acquire practical technical different   skills and knowledge  to enable them to provide leadership to others on the issues that concern them. It seeks to motivate and groom women to believe in their personal abilities in order to catalyze change and to mobilize others to develop into a movement. Some of the approaches used to empower women includes  learning visit to likeminded organization, women leadership training, networking, field visits, parliamentary engagement and mentorship and coaching of women leaders.

General Overview

“Women in Mining Leadership Program”  seek to support women  leadership development in mining areas in four regions of Tanzania namely; Tanga, Singida,Manyara and Geita. The project aims at enhancing the quality of women participation and representation within the mining sector  focusing on three focal points in Mkinga, Simanjiro, Geita and Singida rural districts. These was  achieved through trainings, policy engagement initiatives, coaching and mentorship and  networking.

The engagement with women resulted into women group  formed into  street based daily savings and loan association supporting the women to grow financially. The groups become the nucleus of community organizing and mobilization, while the incentive being an issue that is pressing and immediate to them: ready cash. Natural leaders have  surfaced in the process expanding  from the group of fifteen women  trained by HakiMadini.

HakiMadini facilitated empowerment for the women through  linking and  throughout the program. The process helped in creating a democratic space providing opportunity for women to speak for themselves. This empowerment and learning has  enhanced community  conversation on the need for  open spaces and   greater participation of women in decision making positions in mining sector. Their acknowledgement in the communities and participation in community  structures has been  reported to have positive impacts in strengthening women movements in mining areas. The impacts of sharing and networking between women miners and other stakeholders has been evidenced in the increased women leadership roles in Mining Associations over the last 12 months.