Intervention(s) & Key Activities
The focus of this module is to identify human rights and gender barriers to accessing TB and OH health services and human rights violations among key populations; advocate and engage SADC countries through the regional coordination mechanism and at country level to re-orient TB programmes to address the barriers. This approach will give voice to the TB and occupational challenges mineworkers in large mines and ASM contexts face to trigger change. The interventions in this module build on the CSOs toolkit developed under TIMS Phase 1 and 2.
Intervention 1: Conducting Community, Rights and Gender (CRG) assessment to inform the national human rights and gender initiatives and regional level accountability.
Funds are requested to support CRG TB Assessments. Existing CRG Assessment Tools will be adapted to mineworkers and mining communities. This assessment will be undertaken in six countries representative of the diversity of the mining industry in the region.
Type of mining | Countries | No. of countries | No of countries to selected for CRG assessment[1] |
Large formal mining industry | Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, and DRC | 9 | 2 |
Small mining industry | Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, and Madagascar | 4 | 1 |
Artisanal and small-scale mining | Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, DRC, and Madagascar | 9 | 2 |
Migrant mineworkers | Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Angola | 7 | 1 |
Total | 6 |
[1] The 6 countries will be selected by stakeholders to ensure buy in and ownership of the CRG assessments
In- country multi-sectoral team comprising NTPs, relevant government ministries (such as labour and mines and minerals, health & gender), key populations (mineworkers and labour unions) and private sector will be constituted to lead the assessment. The multi-sectoral team will carry out contextual analysis to identify any on-going similar initiations on human rights for TB which are not for miners, and how this assessment will fit with any on-going initiatives on human rights at country level and how the assessment will be undertaken to avoid duplication. This analysis will identify the specific contributions the assessment will make to country efforts to address human rights and gender barriers to TB services. Through this process, the team will identify existing data that could constitute secondary data source for this assessment, identify where primary data need to be collected and how this assessment can complement on-going human rights interventions.
The Stop TB Partnership recommended methodology for CRG assessments that puts key populations and civil society at the centre of the process will be applied. This will ensure the methodology is all inclusive and participatory.
The recommendations of the CRG assessments will inform the development of an Human rights and Gender initiative to be included in national TB programmes. The in-country multi-sectoral team will convene stakeholder meetings to validate the assessment recommendations and advocate for the CRG assessment recommendations to be implemented and monitored with the leadership of the National TB programmes and civil society partners – in line with efforts to mainstream human rights and gender related considerations in the national TB strategic plans.
Activities to be supported by this funding request include:
Technical assistance to establish and convene a technical team to design, guide and ensure quality of the CRG assessment
Carrying out of the CRG assessments as per the design developed by the multi-sectoral team and develop a country specific action plan based on the assessment recommendations
Convening country level stakeholders to validate the CRG assessment recommendations, advocate for implementation of the recommendations and develop a country specific action plan
Convening regional multi-stakeholder consultative meeting involving all stakeholders in TB in the Mines to disseminate evidence from CRG Assessment and recommendations and action plan. Through this consultative process, countries will reach consensus on how to implement the CRG action plan and the benchmarks against which they will report. Stakeholder will also review the TIMS dashboard to ensure and/or refine the indicator for Human Rights and Gender.
Support KP organisations (ex-mineworkers’ associations, ASM associations and labour unions) to engage with national programmes to re-align national programmes to implement the CRG operational plan. This activity includes facilitating participation of the mining KPs in regional coordination mechanisms where progress in implementation of the CRG operational plan will be reviewed and country consultative meetings with NTPs, OH, Mine Health and Safety and Compensation departments among others.
Develop accessible, community-friendly “Know Your Rights” brochures linked to CRG LEAs &Operational Plans .This activity facilitates operationalisation of the Regional KP Observatory & strengthening of KP capacity.
Priority Population(s) and geographical scope
- 6 countries
- KP organisations and civil society
Barriers and Inequities
- Lack of data to inform interventions for removing human rights and gender barriers to TB and OH services
- Lack of enabling policies to facilitate appropriate gender-responsive and friendly services to cater for female mineworkers. Formal / informal women have limited access to TB, HIV& sexual and reproductive health (SRH); cervical cancer screening, as well as maternity and child health.
- Lack of enabling policy and legal environment for ASM communities in most African countries due to legal status, despite its economic contributions to gross domestic product.
- The lack of clear information on existence of compensation services and institutions makes it difficult for dependents or families of these mineworkers to access the compensation services in cases where the mineworker dies in service.
- In most SADC countries, tuberculosis is compensable when diagnosed with pneumoconiosis or more specifically, silicosis. (Health Focus, 2016). Only 30 percent of workers are covered by this scheme since the informal sector, civil service and domestic workers are excluded. Given the size of artisanal and small-scale artisanal mining (ASSM), particularly in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, adapted compensation models covering for loss of earnings after an injury or a disease arising from workplace exposures must be developed.
Rationale
A review of the national strategic plans for TB found that strategies for removing human rights and gender barriers to access to services by the key populations and mitigating human rights abuses are either limited or lacking. Evidence on the human rights and gender barriers and violations among mineworkers is also limited. A review of CRG assessment carried out tin the southern Africa region found mineworkers were not included in most of these assessments and where they were included, the depth of assessment was inadequate . Thus, the proposed CRG assessment will provide evidence to support countries with mining activities to develop strategies for addressing human rights and gender issues related to TB. The assessments will also inform the definition of key human rights indicators for the regional TIMS dashboard.
Expected Outcome
- 6 selected countries have completed CSRG assessments by 2023