“We are Makurukuru: Gold helps us to stand firm as a human being, as women”: What can we learn from Uganda about the evolution of artisanal and small-scale mining?

Women form a significant proportion of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) workers. However, culture and power dynamics have combined to keep women in the lowest paying ASM tasks. Countries are formalizing ASM in recognition of its ability to provide alternative sources of income. We examine the experiences of women ASM practitioners in Busia, Uganda in view of ongoing formalization to find out how they engage with, benefit, or lose from ASM. We used a questionnaire survey, personal and group interviews to investigate women's experience and compared it to the dominant narratives about women in ASM. We found that although women miners mostly engaged in panning for gold and transporting gold ore and/or water, more women were engaging in ASM activities that were previously the domain of men, such as digging for gold, processing, and trading gold. In a country with limited rural livelihood options, ASM was able to provide women with an income enabling them to acquire assets such as land. Although they extolled the benefits of ASM, the women miners were not reticent about describing its negative impacts. They also shared their aspirations including a desire for economic diversification and training their children to work in a world that does not solely rely on ASM. We hope our findings can be used to inform the resource extraction literature and enhance ASM implementation in Uganda and the global south.