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Consider the plight of women in oil exploration field |
For many countries, extractive industry, especially oil, is a major economic drive in their development and growth. It provides employment opportunities and also a major source of revenue for a country.
Uganda is not an exception, as according to reports from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, the government is anticipating it will get 70 per cent of the revenues that will accrue from oil production. Less than 32 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line – on less than one dollar a day and of this, women are the majority.
However, though Uganda is set to start producing oil, no gender analysis or gender impact assessment was carried out in relation to the project. There is need for the general public to realise that there are risks - social, economic and environmental associated with the oil extraction industry.
Though the benefits and risks are often measured at community level, they often fail to distinguish how it variously impacts on men and women. While the benefits that accrue to men include employment and compensation, the costs such as family/social disruption and environmental degradation fall mainly on women.
The women engaged in exploration field are often very vulnerable. They are often more exposed to the negative impacts of the extraction industry like prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, forced displacement and disruption of their subsistence cultivation and outright exploitation since they offer the bulk of cheap labour. Consequently, the level of domestic violence or divorce will rise as the men who get better paying jobs use their earnings to marry new wives.
Besides, there is also the danger of emitted gaseous hydro-carbons like benzene and toluene that causes diseases including breast cancer to the communities near the oil extraction field. In the Nigeria’s Niger Delta, for instance, many incidents of breast cancer among women have been reported. Such health hazards become even more dangerous in situations where there are no hospitals or the available health facilities are ill-equipped and poorly stocked with drugs.
In Korsakov on Sakhalin Island, women’s workload has been increased to care for their children and husbands on top of providing food and water. Shell constructed a liquid gas plant which has resulted in increased traffic of heavy vehicles through the town. Sadly, this has disrupted water supply and destroyed infrastructure – leading the women to express their concern about the lack of safety for their children and households.
Africa Institute for Energy Governance urges the government to consider making the Ugandan woman consider oil as a blessing and not a curse. Now that oil production is yet to start, it is necessary that gender impact assessment be carried out with a view to taking into consideration the practical needs of women including the provision of food and security. The oil companies on the ground should develop an internal capacity and allocate enough resources to develop, enforce and implement gender-based policies.
They should also provide safeguards and mechanisms of enforcement like gender audits, internal monitoring and systems for evaluation. The inclusion of gender indicators in progress reports and involving women in community monitoring is an effective method of assessing the project impact on men so as to provide corrective measures.
By Doreen Katusiime Programme Assistant, Afiego
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