Safeguarding livelihoods or exacerbating poverty? Artisanal mining and formalization in West Africa

Abstract

In recent years, policy mechanisms to support a formalized artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM) sector in sub‐Saharan Africa have gained increasing currency. Proponents of formalization argue that most social and environmental problems associated with the sector stem from the fact that ASM is predominantly unregulated and operates outside the legal sphere. This paper critically examines recent efforts to formalize artisanal and small‐scale mining in West Africa, drawing upon recent fieldwork carried out in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Mali. In exploring the sector's livelihood dimensions, the analysis suggests that bringing unregulated, informal mining activities into the legal domain remains a considerable challenge. The paper concludes by confirming the urgent need to refocus formalization strategies on the main livelihood challenges and constraints of small‐scale miners themselves, if poverty is to be alleviated and more benefits are to accrue to depressed communities in mineral‐rich regions.

Going for gold: transitional livelihoods in Northern Ghana

“…This has led to calls (e.g. Siegel and Veiga 2009;Maconachie and Hilson 2011) for donors and host governments to formalize the sector and provide assistance to its operators. But in a region of the world -sub-Saharan Africa -where smallholder agricultural development has long been the centrepiece of rural economic development strategies, the idea that a supported ASM sector could alleviate significant hardship has, not surprisingly, encountered some resistance in policymaking circles.…”

Reassembling informal gold‑mining for development and sustainability? Opportunities and limits to formalisation in India, Indonesia and Laos

“…Maconachie and Hilson 2011). Agrarian displacement due to state-backed, large-scale land acquisitions for resource development has been identified as an important 'push' factor for local farmers to seek cash income though involvement in informal gold-mining (Insouvanh 2015).…”

Shifting Formalization Policies and Recentralizing Power: The Case of Zimbabwe's Artisanal Gold Mining Sector

“…numerous countries in Africa in which increasing numbers of people have turned to rudimentary gold extraction as a source of income in recent years (Maconachie and Hilson 2011;Internationl Institute for Environment and Development [IIED] 2013). According to Hayes (2008), 26.4% of Zimbabwe's population depended directly on ASM in 2008, making Zimbabwe the country with the fourth highest rate of dependence on ASM in Africa.…”