Kumasi-Ghana, Oct. 02, GNA – Some members of the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners (GNASSM) are currently receiving training on the human rights due diligence (HRDD) tool developed by the Rainforest Alliance.
The training is part of a larger project aimed at combating forced and child labour in cocoa and gold mining communities.
The new HRDD tool, which has been validated by stakeholders after a six-month pilot, is meant to guide and support the implementation of human rights due diligence by mining and cocoa companies, and ultimately protecting children and vulnerable individuals against forced and child labour.
Mrs. Joyce Poku-Marboah, the Senior Project Manager, explained that “it is a comprehensive tool intended to equip users with the knowledge, understanding and practical steps to identify, prevent, and address potential and actual issues of child labour, forced labour and other human right abuses in the communities.”
It also takes a gender-sensitive approach to ensure that the different situations and experiences where women, girls, men and boys were disproportionately affected, were carefully thought-through with appropriate interventions.
The training forms part of the NORAD funded project, which is being implemented in the Atwima Mponua, Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai, Wassa Amenfi, and Atiwa East.
The multi-faceted approach had seen the empowerment of volunteers in the project communities in the districts, having quarterly dialogue meetings with cocoa companies and government social protection service providers.
The meetings have been geared towards accountability in fulfilling their annual or periodic commitments towards eradication of child labour in their communities.
Over the next three months, Rainforest Alliance plans to train a significant number of people, of whom a minimum of 120, would be selected representatives of cocoa cooperatives, companies and gold mining associations covering over 300,000 members for adoption of the tool.
Other groups earmarked for the training include representatives drawn from the Cocoa Health Extension Division (CHED) of COCOBOD, cocoa companies, Minerals Commission, Labour officers and officers of the Department of Cooperatives, amongst others.
Mrs Poku-Marboah, said as part of efforts to scale up the human rights due diligence tool, there was the need to provide such elaborate training to key stakeholders, especially the companies and cooperatives, so they could make it an integral part of their system to reflect in their daily operations.
“We are taking them through all the core elements of the tool comprehensively, it is going to be a culture that lasts a lifetime of the cooperatives and companies and not an event for adoption within a brief period.
“The core elements address thematic areas such as child and forced labour, gender inequality, workplace violence, and sexual harassment,” she emphasised.
The root causes of child and forced labour, according to Mrs. Poku-Marboah, were complex and multi-faceted.
It was for this reason that in trying to achieve the socio-economic resilience of the vulnerable people, “it is essential to deploy all the necessary tools and approaches to make it happen,” she noted.
Dr. Albert Arhin, a Consultant on the NORAD project, who facilitated the training, said the training was to deepen the knowledge of participants on the tool by exposing them to its content.
He said the expectation was that the companies would be able to take practical steps to address child and forced labour and human rights abuses in the sector.
“What we encourage them to do is to have human right policies that clearly commits and emphasise their dedication to addressing those issues,” he noted.
He expressed happiness that the training was able to address some misconceptions held by the participants prior to the training, saying that it would go a long way to improve their engagements with stakeholders in the value chain.
Madam Susan Dankwah, a small-scale miner from the Eastern Region, said before the training, she was not aware of a lot of things that constituted human right abuses, especially among children.
“After this training I have come to appreciate the need to encourage children who come to our sites to go to school as stakeholders,” she admitted.
The training, she said, had also exposed her to the importance of women empowerment in the male dominated sector and expressed her determination to champion women empowerment going forward.
Mr. Michael Adu-Gyamfi, Secretary, Ashanti District of GNASSM, said the training had been useful in terms of changing the perception of members ahead of the training.
“Before coming to the workshop, I held a different view on some issues regarding human rights due diligence,” he confessed.
He spoke about the need for sustained advocacy by all stakeholders to create awareness about human rights abuses in mining.
Mr. Godwin Amarh, General Secretary of the Association, admonished the miners to take the knowledge gained seriously and put in place action plans with timelines to implement what they had learnt in their operational areas.
He thanked Rainforest Alliance and its partners, including NORAD, for the proactive step of putting together the training package that holistically addressed various human rights issues in their operations.
