RDI trains female journalists on women,extractives Journalism reporting

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

The Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has trained female Journalists on extractive  reporting.

The training, hosted  virtual  focused on equipping women journalists with  critical tools to report more robustly on gender-specific issues in the extractive sector.

Speaking in  her presentation titled : ‘Missed opportunities reporting women in artisanal mining’, a  Media Strategist,  Vanessa Adie, said very often, reports about women in artisanal mining do not look at issues beyond environmental degradation, high and low mining seasons.

She said there are missed opportunities in the narratives about reporting women in artisanal mining.

Adie  outlined some missing opportunities in women reporting which include; women lack of access to land and mining licenses, as well as their exclusion from key points in the mining process.

She stressed on how the financial earnings of this women are been controlled,

“The  remit it to their husbands, guidance , parents and others.

“There is hardly any room for growth in the hierarchy or expansion of their business as a result and their inability to invest in machinery that would ease their work.

“Woman are not given opportunities beyond carrying sand in the mining site.We Don’t really ask what of type land do these women work upon”,She said .

She further explained that women are exposed to long time health hazard such as

chemical exposures,back pains,  arthritis , effect on   maternal and reproductive health and among many others effects .

The Media Strategist added that women in the artisanal mining go through Sexual exploitation, physical violence and death.

She pointed out that there is a need to look at the budget of the mining industry , to interrogate laws by the National Assembly ensuring it  favourable to women and addressing the numerous challenges experienced by female artisanal miners. 

While challenging that media findings should not just be focused on the problems but  also  find solutions to the problems she also encouraged journalists to use fotographics to tell stories.

 Similarly, In her presentation titled ‘The Oil Curse and the Plight of Women in the Niger Delta’, Abassey Cyril from Policy Alert gave  insight of how women in Niger Delta communities experience loss of livelihoods due to environmental degradation; death and reduction in lifespan; economic marginalization,

Others are Land rights and displacement, and increased gender-based violence.

Cyril explained factor affecting the plight of this woman such as conflict and instability, governance challenges, corruption and Dutch diseases .

She called on journalists to investigate and uncover the hidden realities of women’s experiences in the Niger Delta, bringing to light. “Journalists should engage communities through advocacy and create more awareness through writing human angle stories”.

Ebere Ekeopara also speaking on the Coal mining  in Enugun state ; stories from the coal mines Enugun emphasized that “You hardly find the wife of a miner who is not juggling one manual labour or another to support their husbands.

“Today the federal government has sold most of their homes, where these miners lived all their lives”.

She said government should make  sure that former miners and their families receive their proper pension and gratuity.

Senior Advisor, Land and Environmental Defenders at Global Witness, Laura Furones in her presentation on the latest report by Global Witness shared how mining and extractive industry drivers are responsible for 25 deaths of environmental defenders in 2023. 

Furthermore,Development Analyst and Social Justice Advocate, Hauwa Mustapha,  in her presentation disclosed that Many media reports blame the conflicts in the north east region on rural banditry, without addressing its links to illegal mining, poverty and climate change .

Mustapha noted that involvement of foreign corporations in illegal mining is a further exposure of the collaboration between local agents and international exploitation.

She said journalists when writing such stories must have knowledge of the history, gender and socio-cultural dynamics, reporting must necessarily also integrate .

Earlier, In her welcome remarks, the Project Officer RDI , Ifeoluwa Komolafe, stated  despite the low representation of women in the extractive sector, women face myriads of difficulties due to the fallouts of oil extraction and refining, gas processing, quarrying, drilling, and spills among others.

Komolafe Quoted  a 2009 publication by the World Bank titled “Gender Dimensions of the Extractive Industries,”She said that men and women are impacted differently by the hazards of the extractive industry. 

She said that  “chemicals released through the extractive industry impact women differently than men and the effects are also manifest in women’s reproductive system.