Solutions to Narrowing Gender Inequalities in the Mining Sector of Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country and its second largest in terms of population. However, academic literature about Ethiopia is still limited in Asian countries, including Vietnam. Most papers and reports about Ethiopia and Africa are crafted by international development agencies. This paper identifies gender issues in the mining sector of Ethiopia with the use of secondary data and life experience (the author visited Ethiopia in 2019 and did gender analysis and training on gender). The paper emphasizes that the links between gender equality and women’s empowerment and the mineral sector development are increasingly recognized in Ethiopia. Although the Government of Ethiopia has put a lot of effort in promoting gender equality in the mining sector, different gender issues still exist which hampers the sustainable development of this industry. The paper, on the one hand, contributes to the enrichment of academic literature about Africa. On the other hand, the paper suggests a solution to mainstream gender in public policy to make it gender responsive, to better satisfy the needs and expectations of workers in the mining sector. In addition, the author aims to share with scholars in Vietnam about gender equality and sustainable development in Ethiopia - a beautiful African country, but one which has rarely been academically written about.