Factsheet: Reducing gender-based violence in mining communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), four in ten women engaged in artisanal and small-scale mining were forced to trade sex for access to work or basic goods in mining towns. See how a RISE grants challenge project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by Action to Protect Women and Abandoned Children (ASEFA) in partnership with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), Initiative des Femmes Entrepreneures pour le Développement Durable (IFEDD), and Solidarité des Femmes pour le Développement Intégré (SOFEDI) addressed this issue. The “Resource-ful Empowerment: Elevating Women’s Voices for Human and Environmental Protection in Congolese Small-Scale Mining” built women and men miners understanding on social norms, GBV, and safe and environmentally sustainable mining practices, and documented a reduction on sexual coercion in mining towns.