IIED to host 3rd online artisanal and small-scale mining day

IIED will host its third 'digital day' dedicated to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) on 15 March 2018, connecting mining stakeholders across the globe.

News, 02 March 2018
Rehema Peter Mushi mines red garnets and sapphires in Tanzania. She recently won a grant to purchase equipment (Photo: Magali Rochat/IIED)

Rehema Peter Mushi mines red garnets and sapphires in Tanzania. She recently won a grant to purchase equipment (Photo: Magali Rochat/IIED)

IIED is inviting ASM workers, researchers and other stakeholders around the world to collaborate online on 15 March, using the hashtag #shareASM. The aim is to provide an open online space to share ideas for building a safer, more inclusive, sustainable and productive ASM sector. 

Using the #shareASM hashtag will enable a wide range of stakeholders to engage on social media with colleagues across the globe, with IIED and other organisations sharing new research across a range of social media platforms. 

Join the conversation

This third 'digital day' is part of IIED's work on the artisanal mining sector. While an estimated 3-4 million people are employed in the formal mining sector, some 20-30 million work in informal ASM. Many of those working in the sector are women and children in developing countries.

IIED has been running 'action dialogues' in Ghana, Tanzania and Madagascar. We believe that increasing communication, collaboration and trust between stakeholders is a key way to address the problems faced by ASM workers and to secure better governance in the sector.

The last #shareASM day took place in February 2017. Throughout the day, IIED and other organisations shared research, publications and videos on a range of online platforms. IIED also broadcast interviews with key stakeholders who had attended a dialogue event in Ghana.

IIED's ASM programme employs dialogue events to bring together a wide range of stakeholders – including miners themselves –  to discuss ideas for delivering a more inclusive and accountable sector.

The programme has come a long way since the first dialogue event in Ghana in 2016. Most recently a dialogue event in Tanzania in November 2017 helped stakeholders from across the sector to understand the challenges and opportunities of ASM in the region. At that same event, colleagues were provided with a photobook in English and Swahili. The next steps for the programme involve expanding the dialogues to the Amazon region.

More information about IIED's ASM programme:

ASM newsletter

To receive regular updates about our work on ASM, sign up to our ASM newsletter. This quarterly email publication features updates on IIED's work, as well as news about artisanal and small-scale mining from around the world.

Contact

Fitsum Weldegiorgis (fitsum.weldegiorgis@iied.org), lead researcher on IIED's artisanal and small-scale mining knowledge programme, and senior researcher in the Shaping Sustainable Markets research group

Twitter: @fittwittar