Two and a half million men, women, and children in more than 25 African countries are artisanal and small-scale miners. Adding workers in the mining service economy and families of miners, several times more Africans depend on artisanal and small-scale mining for their livelihoods. Their working conditions differ depending on geographic (e.g. location), geological (e.g. mineral mined), demographic (e.g. sex, age), socioeconomic (e.g. alternative employment options), and cultural (e.g. taboos) factors (See picures below). Yet they also have things in common. Usually, artisanal and small-scale miners live in poor rural areas of developing countries. Most are not formally trained in mining and have received little education in general. Using rudimentary exploration and extraction techniques, mining allows them to earn the household cash income, supplement meager farming revenues, and –in the case of coal- obtain energy. While helping the rural poor to make a living, small-scale and aritsanal mining also tends to generate negative effects, including environmental degradation, poor health and sanitation, hazardous working conditions, child labor, uncontrolled migration, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases due to an increase in commercial sex work surrounding mines. Young girls sorting barite, Nigeria Granite miner, Nigeria Washing gold, Ghana Salt mine, Ghana International donor organizations like the World bank and the United Nations believe that artisanal and small-scale mining can contribute to socioeconomic development in poor rural areas. Reliable data from mining communities are pertinent to the design of projects aimed at reducing the negative impacts of mining while increasing its contribution to sustainable livelihoods. These data not only should cover mining and geology, but take a broader view at issues of health, education, emloyment, gender, community leadership and organization, and so forth. Accurate and detailed data, however, are rare. Existing baseline studies often do not contain the information needed to make informed policy decisions. Moreover, wide variation in scope, detail, and depth of coverage among baseline studies makes it impossible to compare the situation in different locations, or to monitor change in one location over time. Confronted with this problem, the Communities and Small-Scale Mining (CASM) Secretariate, housed at the World Bank office in Washingtin DC, initiated the development of guidelines for profiling artisanal and small-scale mining experiences in Africa. These guidelines were brought together in a toolkit . The sustainable livelihoods approach The toolkit was developed by an international and interdisciplinary team of researchers under the auspices of CASM in 2003. It includes a research philosophy and instruments based on the sustainable livelihoods approach. This approach was first developed by the Department for International Development (DFID), London. It considers individuals and households as operating within a livelihoods pentagon, which is made up of five livelihood asset categories: natural capital, physical capital, human capital, social capital and financial capital. Natural capital represents the natural resources base including the forest, flora and fauna, sources of fresh water, and mineral resources. It includes both public goods such as clean air and biodiversity and assets that people use for production such as arable land and fruit trees. Human capital encompasses the skills, knowledge, ability to work and good health that enable people to pursue different livelihood strategies and achieve their livelihood objectives. Financial capital refers to issues such as employment, savings, household income, climate for credit, investment, and so forth Social capital is created by connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them. These social resources support people in pursuit of their livelihood objectives. Data on social capital cover organizational and institutional structures, conflicts, migratory networks, and formal and informal social safety nets. Physical capital represents mainly physical infrastructure such as roads, railways, markets, clinics, schools and physical assets in mines such as equipment & machinery The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach is particularly concerned with how (lack of) access to these capital types shapes vulnerability to shocks and trends, as well as the ability of individuals, households, and communities to cope with them. Testing the toolkit Interviewing men, Nigeria The preliminary version of the present toolkit was the outcome of a desk study. Yet thinking up tools from behind a desk is something different from using these tools in the field. In order to find out if the tools made sense in the real world, the toolkit was field-tested in an artisanal gold mining community in Nigeria in 2004/5. This pilot baseline study was part of a broader effort aimed at promoting more sustainable livelihoods in artisanal mining communities in Nigeria as one component of a larger World Bank-funded program to promote the Sustainable Development of Mineral Resources in Nigeria. Interviewing women, Nigeria The Nigerian initiative involved training of a team of Nigerian researchers in using the toolkit (October 2004), field testing of the survey instruments, data collection in the Birnin Gwari artisanal gold mining communities (November 2004), data analysis, and report writing. This step-by-step experience, combined with observational visits to artisanal Gypsum and Barite mining suites, led to many changes to the toolkit. The result is the booklet you find here . The tools Child miner, zimbabwe (Photo by B. Drechsler) The final toolkit contains various tools that are meant to help researchers collect data that are critical for profiling artisanal and small-scale mining communities in Africa. These include: * A checklist of issues critical and necessary . Issues and information are critical and necessary if they can be influenced or need to be considered by decision-makers in order to achieve poverty reduction and livelihood improvement in the short- and mid-term * A set of benchmark indicators and a list of 25 key indicators . An indicator is a relatively simple measure to characterize a more complex concept or situation, which allows for comparison across time and space. Indicators have to provide information on the state of a system and its change over time. The indicators listed in the toolkit were selected on the basis of their ability to directly or indirectly measure causes and consequences of poverty and livelihood choices in ASM communities. Child miner, Nigeria (Photo by B. Drechsler) * Research templates, namely: (A) Community survey general, to characterize the community. The various sections ask about access to natural resources, water, educational facilities, and health care, as well as about political structures and social organization. (B) Community survey ASM specific, to evaluate the local mining context, including a technological assessment, make-up of the local mining population, the participation of women and children, mining-related social conflicts, and the relative importance of mining to the community. (C) Household survey, to collect social, demographic, economic, health, and other data on household members. (D) Mining unit survey for data about mining units and all individual miners in a unit, such as their earnings expenses, and specific labor organization. (E) Mining service provider survey, to provide information about the individuals or groups that provide services to miners such as milling, sex and trade. (F) Women’s focus group, to assess women’s views on gender relations, women’s needs, and other women's participation in mining. (G) Environmental survey, to record the natural vegetation cover and original fauna, and the impacts of mining on air, land, and water resources. (H) Children’s focus group, to ask children about their family situation, labor conditions, educational options, earnings, and future perspectives. * A baseline report template; a suggested lay-out for a baseline study report. From toolkit to toolbox Washing columbite, Nigeria As stated above, the objective of the toolkit is to establish a norm or standard which specifies contents and minimum data requirements of baseline studies. The “kit” should serve as an operating or instruction manual describing the basic instruments and tools required in profiling work. These guidelines are necessarily generic as they must be applicable to the variety of field situations researchers may encounter throughout the African continent. They must be useful to researchers conducting a baseline study in a stone quarry in the Democratic republic of Congo, in an Angolan diamond mining region, and in an artisanal gold mining community in Nigeria. They should capture the livelihood experiences of men, women and children, who may be migrants or long-term settlers, belonging to diverse ethnic groups with different cultural rules and customs. Washing gold, Mozambique (Photo by B. Drechsler) On the other hand, a good baseline study must capture the specific working conditions, living circumstances, features of the natural environment, cultural habits and norms, and many other characteristics of the study area. Hence the tools and instruments presented in this kit should be considered suggestions and examples. It is the researchers’ job to transform the toolkit into a toolbox that serves one's particular purpose, and reflects the local reality. To speak metaphorically: the toolkit manual may advice using a hammer to put a nail into the wall. Yet it is the carpenter who ultimately decides what nail fits the purpose, and what hammer is most appropriate to use You must decide what tools are useful to you and adapt the instrument to the field conditions. Once you have decided that you want to conduct household interviews, for example, you should make the appropriate changes to the household survey template. Next you would test and modify the new instrument until it works for you and the people you are working with. It is our hope that the final toolkit is a useful, transparent, and insightful field guide for researchers. We also hope that the data collected following this approach will provide adequate building blocks for policy interventions aimed at promoting more sustainable livelihoods for artisanal and small-scale miners, their families, and those millions of other rural people living near and depending on the mines. Contact information: Marieke Heemskerk, Haydnstraat 15, Paramaribo, Suriname. Email: mheemskerk@yahoo.com. Phone: (+597) 8886576 Copyright © Last modified: September 2005