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While it shouldn’t take a special day to talk about women’s engagement with, and experiences of, the extractive sector, we’ve decided it would be remiss not to use this opportunity to highlight the fantastic work being done in this crucial area. We will continue to post stories about gender and the extractives throughout the year, because this discussion merits more than one out of 365 days attention…

Message from our Director Marinke van Riet:

For International Women’s Day, I’d like to pay homage and celebrate the sisters in the PWYP campaign - we have so many fantastic women activists all around the world. Some are doing a great job leading national coalitions- such as in is Nigeria, Indonesia, Mali, Canada and more  - but I’d like to congratulate all the women who campaign tirelessly at all levels in our movement. I've been lucky enough to have met inspirational women activists during my time at PWYP, these women are putting all their energy into ensuring a better future for their country. In particular I remember meeting the first female geology professor in Kyrgyzstan, Amatova Nurjamal, who when she saw that gold was not benefiting communities, said that she was striving for "a fiscal regime that makes me and my people happy".

Women make up half of the population of the world and suffer disproportionally more from the social and environmental effects of extraction. Yet we don’t see them sufficiently in the economic and political leadership spheres and their voices are not sufficiently heard. That’s why PWYP has been working to make sure that gender issues are included in our campaign.

As a leader I am committed to also ensuring that gender equality is enshrined in PWYP as a structure - in our governance structure our Global Steering Committee is gender-balanced, as will be all aspects of our future governance structure when we transition (link to transition page). We also strive to ensure that we give the limelight to women as often as men.

In terms of our work on gender and the extractives I have a long term  and a short term vision. In the short term, in 2015, I would like to see the Extracting Equality guide  being tested to see if a gender responsive value chain is the way forward. Longer term I have the same aspiration for gender as for our whole Vision 20/20, that all citizens - including women - benefit from their natural resources.  I am committed to seeing that happen – and I am sure the PWYP sisters will help us get there! Happy Women’s Day.

• Stand with women - push for transparency. Transparency in the extractive sector will enable citizens to follow the money and ensure that extractive revenues are being spent in the interests of the many rather than the few. Thousands of women activists have been fighting for transparency to improve the lives of their families and communities. In the US, a historic law could help change the lives of millions but the SEC still needs to issue rules so that it can come into effect. This year, PWYP member Oxfam is calling on you to support women activists and call on the SEC to ‘finish the job on transparency'.
• MSI Integrity have published a write-up of the event PWYP hosted to launch their report on the governance of EITI’s Multi-Stakeholder Groups. To see the key points of the lively debate, visit their site.
• Oxfam organised a range of events on gender and the extractives for International Women's Day. In DC last Wednesday they organised an event, "Women and Mining in Africa: making their voices heard" which also shared the findings of their recent report on FPIC in Ghana, and its implications for gender. They also organised a roadshow throughout cities in the states to brief people on the importance of Dodd-Frank 1504 for women in resource-rich countries. Finally, Oxfam Canada hosted a panel on how extractive companies can improve their practices when it comes to gender. Check out articles from Oxfam Canada's Lina Holguin and Oxfam America's Katherine Stanley to find out more. 

Last November, we launched with UN Women the first ever extractive value chain that looks at how to incorporate gender issues in the campaign for a more responsible extractive sector. Women are affected differently by the extractive sector than men, have a different means of accessing information and often have less say in local affairs. The result of all of this is that women are most affected but least heard.

For us, it was important to emphasise that women aren’t an ‘extra’ and special work area. The fact is, if we really mean that our vision is for ‘all citizens to benefit from their natural resources’ we need to make sure different groups are accounted for and not assume that women will be catered for in the catch-all ‘neutral’ (‘neutral’ so often translates in practice as ‘male’).

So in order to deliver on our vision, we examined our chain for change that looks at how to improve transparency and governance at each step of the extractive process, from discovery of resources to the wrapping up of a project. How could we make sure women’s voices were being heard and their needs being met? If you are encouraging a data revolution, how can you make sure that women too can take part?  The toolkit offers a step-to-step guide for how you can do just that.

Now that our toolkit has been launched, the time has come to use it! As well as being a way of building the capacity of our members and others on this issue, the guides have a strong practical component. We’ll be testing these chains in Uganda, Malawi and other countries this year - assessing how the steps match the reality and seeing how the recommendations can help integrate gender in our campaigns at the national level.

From our Eurasia Coordinator Oliana Valigura

The role of women in Central Asia has never been an easy one as they have had to take care of husbands, raise children and manage a household; many of them have had to do this while also living in poverty and being subject to society’s strict gender rules.

Today, on top of this, women are striving to become leaders and decision makers at the local and national level.  Indeed, in Tajikistan civil society mostly consists of women and women take on more responsibilities in their local communities. This is a result not only of the strong will and endurance of the eastern women, but also due to the very high level of men’s migration. According to interviews with women activists over 20% of men in Tajikistan have emigrated for labor purposes and in remote regions this number reaches 50%. Women are often at the forefront of the campaign to protect Tajikistani communities from the effects of mining and ensuring that citizens see some benefit. This is a crucial task in a country where 80% of citizens live below the poverty line.

“Our mission is to create conditions for the development of women and their rights, to involve women in the decision-making process at all levels: family, community and country”, says Zanonimar Sharipovaa trainer-facilitator with 22 years of experience as a  school principal. Her lifelong mission is to teach and provide support to women and children, “I am inspired by the opportunity to contribute to the development of today's society”.

“We started our NGO Zanu ni shark in 1995 in Panjakent, Tajikistan.  It was hard at first, we struggled for funding but eventually succeeded, it helped that we had a catchy name – Women of the East! (Zanu ni shark)”, remembers Zanonimar.

Panjakent is a city in Sughd Province which is rich with gold...

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PWYP has been lucky enough to have always had fantastic female members, and that list just keeps on growing! Meet some of our activists and find out in their own words why they campaign on this issue…

Rahma Bin Youssef - Tunisia

I work on reversing the resource curse that has changed the province I live in, Gabes, from the paradise oasis it once was to the impoverished area with  poor infrastructure it is today. There is also high air and water pollution due to the exploration and extraction activities of several national and international oil companies.
As part of the civil society network in Tunisia, I have been actively campaigning for improving the quality of life in Gabes by demanding a fair share of the revenues generated by the province of Gabes. Demanding that the government publishes how it spends the revenues will help us leverage our demands for improving the environmental conditions in my area. Being part of PWYP’s affiliated coalition in Tunisia allows me to lobby in an organised way to promote change.

Rano Jumaeva - Tajikistan

“Our main target is to work with youth, especially with girls from remote areas and villages. We promote education among young girls. We also work with their parents to explain how important it is for women to be educated.

We faced different challenges but never gave up. It is hard to locomote between the regions and also often we simply don’t have an electricity to use projector or show documentaries. That is why we use performances to illustrate the issues and challenges that women face but also their successes. We encourage the audience to think, discuss and even to come up with alternative ending.

It was hard to understand my role in extractive industries transparency until I heard of the gender sensitive value chain (Extracting Equality) at the Publish What You Pay workshop. This gave me an idea of how we can combine work with women and extracting industries. I think we need to continue our training for young women adding an element of extraction knowledge, using value chain for women.

So far, the reality shows that most of people that live in the regions of extraction do not know how much money companies pay and how much money should return to the region. Local population doesn’t understand the implications and benefits from the mining in their region. Before the country signed up to EITI no one ever talked of transparency. Now that we have started to be involved with implementation of EITI, more information is coming and we can raise common awareness.”

The PWYP coalition in DRC has been campaigning for years to increase understanding of EITI so that citizens can make better use of the initiative to improve the management of their natural resources. To this end, in a country the size of Western Europe with low internet and television penetration, the coalition has been training journalists on community radios about the issues, so that they can then spread the word. The below interview, by PWYP DRC's Communications Officer Tina Meli, is with journalist Pascaline Tshimbuka who attended one of PWYP’s training workshops…

Pascaline Tshimbuka. a dynamic and passionate broadcaster, is taking part in a training workshop on the EITI for community radio journalists and is one of the few in her profession who chose to enter it despite having no formal training; instead she learnt on the job. A graduate in Business Studies, she took her first steps in journalism in 2002 in Muanda, where she was born.

Inspired by a small number of women journalists at RTNC (the national channel) including Nicole Dibambu Kitoko, she got a taste for informing people through the media and attended numerous training courses on handling information, confirming her decision to become a journalist. She now hosts a morning slot on Muanda Community Radio and Television.

We met her at the capacity-building workshop for community radio representatives on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative organised by the Publish What You Pay coalition in Mbabza-Ngungu from 22 to 25 September 2014.

“I have to admit this workshop has had a profound effect on me and my views as a journalist. Previously, I didn’t know much about the EITI and I had no idea that this issue was so important for our communities,” she admitted during our interview.

For Pascaline, the workshop was a reminder to all journalists to shoulder their responsibilities as communicators in a community environment and underpins her determination to look for information wherever she is, regardless of the risks.

“The workshop has given me the tools I need to get closely involved in disseminating information about the EITI and in particular about proper governance,” she says, adding, “The people of Muanda are often content with the donations such as rice, fish, etc. made by certain oil companies but they are entitled to know that these donations come from the income generated by managing their country’s natural resources and that they could get a better deal from the government if they themselves got involved in the EITI process.”

Pascaline, who was the only female journalist able to respond to the invitation to take part in the workshop, is glad to have attended and is promising to raise awareness amongst her colleagues and negotiate with her channel to host discussions on the EITI involving local communities.

She ends our interview on the following thought: “I have an advantage, which is that I work for the most popular channel in Muanda, and I’m confident that my voice will be louder and that it can bring about significant change for the people of Muanda and the surrounding area.”