Women, Illegal Mining, and Security Governance in West Africa Integrating WPS into the Fight Against Shadow Economies

Overview

Illegal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a defining feature of West Africa’s shadow economy. It sustains livelihoods while simultaneously fuelling criminality, insurgency financing, and governance breakdown. Women are at the centre of this economy — yet their participation is invisible, their protection inadequate, their exclusion entrenched, and their role in recovery consistently overlooked.

Applying the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) framework provides a sharper understanding of how gender dynamics are not peripheral but central to stability, governance, and security in mining zones.

Participation

Women represent up to half of ASM workforces in some regions, primarily in ore processing, trade, or ancillary roles. Yet their absence from decision-making structures — community mining committees, enforcement bodies, and oversight boards — strips them of influence over regulations that directly affect their livelihoods.

• Where women have been supported to lead cooperatives or sit on community governance bodies, the results include:
• Reduced harassment and extortion from middlemen and local officials.
• Improved environmental practices, including better waste management and safer mercury handling.
• Stronger linkages to formal markets, enabling higher incomes and reduced dependence on smuggling networks.

True participation requires substantive influence, not token appointments. Without women in oversight and regulatory institutions, mining governance remains partial and less effective.

Protection

Mining camps and unregulated ASM zones are high-risk environments for women. They face disproportionate exposure to:

• Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), including coercion, harassment, and transactional sex arrangements.
• Human trafficking, with cross-border flows exploiting women from Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone into goldfields.
• Unsafe working conditions, including exposure to mercury, dust, and collapses, with no grievance mechanisms or legal protections.

A gender-responsive protection framework should include:

• Specialized gender desks in mining zones.
• GBV prevention training for security forces and mining inspectors.
• Establishment of accessible complaint channels for women to report abuses.

Without these protections, women remain trapped in cycles of exploitation, reinforcing the shadow economy’s resilience.

Prevention

Conflict around mining sites often stems from inequality, exclusion, and mismanaged land and mineral governance. Women’s exclusion compounds these risks:

• Barriers to land and licensing exclude women from owning or legally operating mines.
• Lack of access to finance forces dependence on exploitative buyers and intermediaries.
• Absence of livelihood alternatives deepens vulnerability to exploitation or recruitment by illicit actors.

Preventive measures must therefore:

• Ensure gender equality in mining reforms.
• Guarantee women’s access to secure land tenure and licenses.
• Provide skills training and livelihood diversification (e.g., agroforestry, aquaculture, eco-tourism).

Inclusion reduces vulnerability and builds community resilience, thereby limiting the recruitment base for armed groups and criminal networks.

Relief & Recovery

In post-conflict or post-crisis phases, women remain excluded from recovery planning and compensation schemes, despite their dominance in ASM.

• In Sierra Leone, women account for up to 90% of artisanal gold prospectors yet are sidelined from recovery compensation.
• Burkina Faso’s reforms, integrating women into ASM governance, show that gender inclusion can yield safer income alternatives and improved environmental outcomes.
• Programs such as WIM-Africa demonstrate the benefits of women’s involvement in recovery:
• Social cohesion is strengthened when women are recognized as stakeholders.
• Environmental rehabilitation improves with women-led stewardship.
• Access to finance through grants and microcredit empowers women to rebuild sustainably.

Relief and recovery must centre women’s leadership to build resilient communities and prevent relapse into exploitative, destabilizing mining cycles.

Security and Political Implications

• Insurgent Financing: Gold taxation by jihadist groups entrenches illicit economies and weakens state authority.
• Community Fragility: Gender exclusion fosters resentment, undermines trust, and erodes legitimacy of state governance.
• Regional Spillover: Mining-linked instability in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger risks destabilizing Guinea, Ghana, and coastal states.

Conclusion

Women’s invisibility in ASM governance is not just a gender issue — it is a structural security threat. Their exclusion perpetuates cycles of exploitation, sustains shadow economies, and strengthens extremist financing networks. Integrating the WPS pillars into mining governance is therefore a strategic necessity for building sustainable peace and inclusive development.

African Security Analysis (ASA) recognizes that governments and institutions cannot afford to treat women’s exclusion in ASM as a secondary matter. It is central to the security, governance, and economic resilience of mining-affected regions.

Integrating women into ASM governance through the WPS pillars strengthens resilience, undercuts shadow economies, and enhances long-term stability. ASA remains the trusted partner for governments and institutions requiring confidential intelligence and strategic guidance to address this urgent security and governance challenge.

ASA provides confidential, tailored intelligence and advisory support to governments, regional organizations, and institutions seeking to embed WPS principles into mining-sector governance and security reform. Specifically, ASA delivers:

• Field intelligence on ASM networks, criminal flows, and their gendered impacts.
• Mapping of women’s exclusion and participation gaps, identifying leverage points for reform.
• Confidential advisory services to ministries of mines, environment, and security agencies on integrating WPS into regulation and enforcement.
• Operational risk analysis of how women’s vulnerabilities intersect with extremist financing and conflict dynamics.
• Capacity-building support for regulatory bodies, ensuring protection and participation frameworks are actionable in high-risk zones.