Category Archives: Weekly Reflections

Women and Mining in Mongolia

Debbie Prasad, MAAPPS // March 15, 2015

The Mongolian President recently took part in celebrating Women’s Day last week. The celebrations involved calling representatives of thousands of mothers and girls in Mongolia and honouring them with special badges. The President also spoke about the various problems that faced women in Mongolian society.

I have not been able to access what details were entailed in the speech, but I am hopeful that the lack of women’s representation in the extractive industry was seen as an issue that needed to be addressed.

For the past few weeks, I have been getting to learn a lot about Mongolian society including their shared identity of idolizing Ghenghis Khan, their predominantly meat and dairy heavy foods, and also their extremely high literacy rate. I have been doing a little digging of my own and wanted to see what women’s roles in society and mining were and I came across a World Bank report that stated that only 5-10 percent of the extractive industry sector were female, and that they were primarily in service support roles. The Mongolia 2008 labour regulations limited women’s participation in the extractive sector, which led to promoting women towards “easier” jobs. Which were not really to be found in mining.

Mining constitutes approximately 18% of Mongolia’s GDP, and just under 10% of the labour force is employed in the extractive industry, while 33% of the labour force are employed in agriculture and 55% are employed in the service industry. In addition to this, there is a projected labour shortage in the extractive industry, while there  is a mining boom.

Now, to put all this together, and get to my point! One purpose of having the EITI in Mongolia was to increase transparency. In order to do this, civil society needs to be given to tools to hold companies and the government accountable for their actions. One way in which society can be able to hold parties responsible is by being more involved and aware of the activities- and what better way to be aware of activities than by actually being employed in the industry? It seems that the numbers are not just a little low for everyone’s employment in the mining labour force, but this is even more so for women. One little way that transparency and interest in mining can further increase in Mongolia is by having more of their own citizens involved in the extractive labour force. I agree that so far, mining has been discriminating against women not just in Mongolia, but this happens all over the world, and so it is not my intention to single Mongolia out. But why not look for solutions that can benefit everyone?

In the case of Mongolia, one possible solution to the upcoming labour shortage can be to involve more women in the industry. The education and infrastructure is already present in Mongolia with respect to mining, all that needs to happen is to encourage and involve more of the women. Possibly, this involvement will help to increase awareness interest in mining in Mongolia, and as a result, lead to increased gender equality.

 

Sources:

“Mongolia: Raising Female Participation in the Large Scale Mining Sector” World Bank, 2013

“Government Authorities Praise the International Women’s Day” http://www.infomongolia.com/ct/ci/8991

“Best Honored Mothers Have Been Awarded” http://www.infomongolia.com/ct/ci/3473

 

COMPLIANCE, REFORM AND ENAGEMENT

Jocelyn Fraser, PhD student in Mining engineering // March 15, 2015

Research to assess the readiness of EITI countries to implement sub-national reporting has highlighted some interesting findings. The work has also raised some fundamental questions.
What does being compliant really mean?

EITI Chair Clare Short recently noted that compliance is neither a seal of approval nor an instant cure https://eiti.org/blog/eiti-not-seal-approval-sign-change. She acknowledges the apparent contradiction in countries of conflict and corruption being deemed “compliant” by the EITI, yet notes that membership in the EITI reflects a political and public commitment to reform. Reform may be easier to achieve in some countries that others and leads to a second question.

Is the legal framework in place to support reform?

Global Witness has noted that very few resource-rich countries have a strong legal framework to govern extractive sector, publish data and have some oversight on accountability. Without a strong governance framework, the risks of mismanagement increase when sub-national governments with limited staff, skills or experience receive large infusions of money. Especially if those revenue transfers occur sporadically. As the goal of sub-national reporting is to enhance transparency, the next question becomes . . .

Can the EITI be integrated into government systems to act as a platform for reform?

Philosophically, the EITI is presented as a platform for reform. Practically, it is a diagnostic tool. Easy for some members to use; more difficult for others. There is good reason to laud the progress EITI countries have made yet considerable effort is still required to achieve transparency in the extractive sector. As has been noted in previous blog posts, weak institutions are not well equipped to fight corruption and fraud.

The EITI may be able to do more to integrate into government systems to provide support for reform and address ineffective revenue management. Public debate about the reporting of extractive revenue should also lead to governance reform.

Can the complexity of resource revenue be explained clearly, concisely, and in a manner that will motivate ordinary citizens to take an interest?

The answer should be “yes”. However, in many EITI countries there is little evidence to date of effective communications – that is communication that enables lay people to become engaged with their country’s EITI effort. Existing websites and EITI country reports are dense, arcane documents potentially of some interest to experts but a challenge for many to decipher. Beyond the filing EITI country reports (many of which appear several years after the reporting period), information flow in the countries studied remains ad hoc, which undermines engagement. And without reporting on how extractive revenues are used at the local level there is little in the materials to address the average citizen’s principal interest: What is in it for me or my community?

How is money from extractive industries used?

The EITI has been clear that their mandate is not evaluating how resource revenue is used yet this remains an issue for member countries to address. In preparation for implementing sub-national reporting, in-country Multi Stakeholder Groups (MSG) could work with sub-national governments, civil society and citizen groups to establish criteria for balancing investment in short-term community needs with long-term economic development. The criteria might include engaging stakeholders to identify needs and maximize benefits from resource revenue at the local level; enabling small and medium enterprise; co-development of infrastructure required for both extractive industries and local communities; and investing to develop human capital. The later is a particularly relevant criteria in EITI member countries attempting to break the cycle of conflict and poverty, strengthen institutions, and support good governance.

What’s Next?

Harry Li, MAAPPS // Mar 11, 2015

Having discovered the news that the team will not have the chance to present our findings in Mongolia this year, the team felt a moment of pause and bewilderment, but soon back on track.

For the first half of term, each member picked an EITI country to investigate its level of sub-national reporting. The end goal is combine useful data and draw patterns in which potentially could be beneficial in promoting Mongolia’s sub-national reporting. For the last two weeks, the major discussions were on how to analyze the collective findings so that we can put it into a presentation for the EITI Mongolia coordinator.  We have decided to categorize countries in to the following factors:

  • Regional governance VS. Federal governance
  • Taxes collected federally VS. Taxes collected federal and regionally
  • Funding through government VS. Funding through companies
  • Evidence of sub-national initiatives
  • Oil dominant VS. Mining dominant
  • Level of artisanal and small-scale mining(ASM)
  • Population density
  • GDP percentage of extractive sector
  • Conflict VS. Stable zone

So far, 8 out of 13(including Mongolia)  countries has sub-national reporting legislation enabled. 5 out of 13 has no sub-national initiatives, 4 has started discussions and 4 countries have sub-national initiatives implemented.   Another interesting pattern we found was that oil dominant countries are less likely to embrace sub-national reporting than mining dominant countries.

Thanks to Christina’s idea, the team is brainstorming on the most effective ways to engage Mongolian citizens in learning about the importance of sub-national reporting. Interestingly, we thought of posters in gas stations, cooperation with Mongolian banks, citizen hall engagement and more.

On March 9, we were honored to be joined by Canada’s second resident Ambassador in Mongolia, Mr.Gregory Goldhawk. He provided us with great insights about Mongolia and we discussed our project with him. Mr.Goldhawk believes that what we are doing is new, innovative and valuable. We may not have everything figured out yet, but every great world initiative starts somewhere.  I, too, believe in this project.

Room for Optimism in Mongolian Resource Extraction Transparency

Jon Brasnett, MAAPPS // Mar 8, 2015

After researching the case of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and its own implementation of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) standards, I felt discouraged about the legitimacy of this initiative and its ability to bring transparency. Mauritania is a semi-presidential republic governed by a military leader who was “democratically” re-elected after initially coming to power through a coup d’état. It is a country characterized by poverty and inequality, where 40% of citizens live in conditions of extreme poverty (UN HDR) and approximately 10-20% of citizens live under conditions of slavery (CNN). Thus, I came to doubt the capacity of EITI reports to mobilize an educated civil society to lobby government institutions or extractive industries for increased transparency or efficient redistribution of resource wealth to the communities from where the resources were extracted. Instead, I got the impression that achieving compliant status in EITI was a way for the Mauritanian government to legitimize its rule by demonstrating a desire to be more transparent, for the extractive industries to show that they are making and recording their payments, and for the international EITI community to perceive Mauritania as a country that complies with international norms and encourages citizens to voice their opinions and interests. In a country where such large percentages of the citizenry live in poverty and suffer from repression, it is difficult to believe that EITI reports mobilize any civil society opposition to or regulation of the resource extraction industry.

On the other hand, upon looking into the case of Mongolia, my optimism has been restored with regards to the importance of EITI implementation. As a newly established democracy, it is important to publish all natural resource revenue information so that the citizenry (particularly civil society organizations) can hold the government accountable if this revenue happens to disappear and is never invested into the provision of social services. Mining makes up approximately 20% of Mongolia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a number which continues to grow year after year. As a result, poverty levels are rapidly decreasing, down more than 11% just between 2010 and 2012 (European Commission MIP for Mongolia, 2014-2020). Even though EITI did not mention Mongolia as one of the countries in which subnational reporting might be relevant, it is difficult to ignore the fact that Mongolia would be a perfect pilot for such a project. This is owing to the fact that Mongolia has a literacy rate of 100%, a growing number of civil society organizations and NGOs, as well as an increasingly democratic identity among its citizenry. Considering the fact that many provinces (aimags) and far more districts (sums) have been transformed due to the resource extraction taking place there, these aimags and sums deserve the opportunity to see exactly how much wealth is being extracted from their land and in turn, to demand greater provision of important social services (like schools, hospitals, transit, etc.) to increase their quality of life and level of development. I strongly believe that Mongolia has the potential to lead the way in the implementation of subnational reporting in the EITI, and that this might truly benefit its citizens.

“SUSPENDED”

Mario Ramirez, MASc Mining Engineering // Mar 7, 2015

Just before its first anniversary as a compliant country to the EITI initiative Guatemala got suspended for missing the next EITI report deadline.  I guess I‘m not surprised for such decision, especially after reading that the extension request by the multi-stakeholder group (MSG) to the EITI board was made only 7 days before the submission deadline[1]. However, what surprises me though is that there was actually a person on December 24th making this request to the EITI board.  Usually by that date, Guatemala is totally shut down due to Christmas festivities and so on. Sure it looks like a last minute resource to save face, however, I could be wrong.

Reading the agenda notes of the December 15, 2014 meeting held by the MSG group, it seems there was not a chance for the MSG to reach the EITI deadline.  One of the key attendants, Ms. Lopez de Barillas who represents the presidential transparency commission, mentioned that a request of extension needed to be agreed upon the attendants due to the pending selection and hiring of the company in charge of working on the next reconciliation report.  She also reported in that meeting that the acquisition specialist of the public finance department thought the hiring of the company was going to take place in the month of February 2015 (last month).  I tried to follow up looking at the 2015 meeting notes but only a pdf with a list of attendants for the February meeting was found[2]. I could not find further MSG information to the previous pending points of prior meetings.

It is quite impressive to read that the last multi-stakeholder group meeting was held in February 23rd, and that the suspension as an EITI compliant member took place only 3 days after that meeting.  However, the only information you can find on the reports of 2015 is the list of attendants I mentioned previously, and as I said, there is no evidence of critical discussion and communication regarding the suspension that was about to take place a few days later.  Reading further I found there were 17 MSG meetings in 2014 and there is also a detailed work plan to be carried out to accomplish the EITI deadlines.  However, even after all those meetings and a good work plan, it was no possible to achieve the desired results.

Hopefully, Guatemalan stakeholders are looking forward to become active members of the EITI initiative in the near future.

[1] https://eiti.org/Guatemala
[2] http://eitiguatemala.org.gt/ category/actas-de-sesiones- 2015/