Goal
To strengthen the security and resilience of artisanal and small-scale mining communities in Colombia.
tHE CONTEXT
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining remains a critical livelihood source for thousands across Colombia. Across western regions of Colombia, the gold sector is characterized by growing insecurity and persistent violence, driven by the presence of non-state armed groups, entrenched organized crime, and competition over mineral-rich territories.
As insecurity intensifies, mining communities face escalating threats—including extortion, forced displacement, and environmental degradation—that directly undermine social cohesion, economic resilience, and trust in state institutions. The continued presence of armed conflict and illicit economies also undermines Colombia’s broader aspirations for responsible mineral development.
Women miners, particularly Afro-descendant women, face these risks even more acutely. Structural inequalities, combined with gender-based violence and discrimination, position women at the front line of insecurity while simultaneously limiting their access to protection mechanisms, economic opportunities, and channels for participation in conflict prevention and resolution processes.
Despite the centrality of women in artisanal and small-scale mining communities, they remain largely absent from the decision-making processes intended to address insecurity, economic development, and resource governance.
As a result, public policy decisions do not always align with the realities and needs of women in artisanal and small-scale mining and, in some cases, may have unintended effects on their livelihoods. Security operations and measures, including those aimed at combating illicit activities or ensuring security in areas where different forms of mining coexist, have not always incorporated gender-responsive approaches. In some cases, enforcement actions have affected livelihoods and contributed to community distrust, with differentiated impacts on women, whose economic alternatives are already limited.
There is a critical need for an integrated approach that strengthens community resilience to insecurity, supports women’s leadership in both conflict-prevention and resource governance, and improves the security in mining regions.
What We Are Doing
The project aims to strengthen the resilience of local artisanal gold mining communities in Colombia to conflict and insecurity. The project will build the capacity of women artisanal gold miners to lead protection efforts and be part of decision-making to address sources of insecurity within their communities.
The project is being implemented in Colombia’s departments of Chocó, Cauca, and Caldas.
Persistent conflict, violence and insecurity in Colombia’s mining-rich areas disproportionately impacts women artisanal gold miners and is driven by contextual and structural factors that include entrenched gender inequality, gaps in mining governance, environmental degradation, and the presence of armed groups and organized crime.
Women artisanal miners will be empowered to organize, advocate, and lead interventions that reduce their communities’ vulnerability to conflict, violence, and insecurity. The project will apply a proven methodology that combines participatory consciousness-raising, dialogue, advocacy, and popular media to catalyze collective action led by women miners. Through these approaches, the project is expected to contribute to increased participation of community stakeholders in local efforts to address conflict, violence, and insecurity, increase the participation of women miners in conflict resolution and violence prevention, as well as strengthen the protection of women and men in artisanal and small-scale mining communities.
The project will:
- Increase participation of community stakeholders in local efforts to address conflict, violence, and insecurity
- Establish and validate a participatory baseline of security risks and gendered vulnerabilities in the four target municipalities
- Support women miners to co-facilitate community-driven conflict-mapping exercises and identify risks and local drivers of violence
- Develop joint strategies to integrate risks into a gender-transformative conflict-prevention approach aligned with community development plans
- Support women mining associations to collaborate with local authorities and other stakeholders
- Increase participation of women miners in conflict resolution and violence prevention
- Support women mining associations to validate their training needs for effective strategy implementation
- Support women from the mining associations to collaborate with each other and promote knowledge exchange on advocacy and women’s participation in decision-making processes
- Encourage women’s participation in local and national governance
- Establish 3 community Peace Hubs
- Train women Peace Hub members on peaceful conflict mediation and negotiation
- Facilitate the identification of support services for community members experiencing insecurity or who have been victims of violence
- Strengthen protection of women and men in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining communities
- Develop roadmap for implementation of commitments from regional authorities
- Implement tools to track security and conflict related incidents in mining and surrounding areas in the four municipalities, to inform response strategies
