Regional countries under the auspices of the International Conference on the Great Lakes region (ICGLR) have concluded a two-day meeting that discussed how to better integrate women in their respective mining sectors.

The meeting, which took place from August 25-26 brought together officials from Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Rwanda, aimed at strengthening the 2011 Kampala Declaration that was signed during 4th Summit of the ICGLR.

The Declaration’s goal was to integrate gender into mineral policy.

The State Minister in charge of Mining, Evode Imena, said sexual violence had been highlighted among the various factors that aaffect women in the mining sector.

"We need to discuss and share experiences about practices that hinder women entering the mining sector. We have different experts and gender ministers to help mining ministries figure out how to raise the number of number of women in the sector”, he said.

According to Imena, out of 727 licensed mining companies in Rwanda only 19 per cent were led by women. Only 16 per cent of the 37,000 mineral workers are women the Government’s target is at least 30 per cent.

According to Spes-Caritas Barankariza, an official from the Burundian ministry of gender equality, the sector is still suffering from the belief that women don’t belong in such work.

Amb Eliane Berthe Mokodopo, Executive Secretary in charge of gender, women and children programme in Secretariat of the ICGLR, said that over 80 per cent of the women working in the mining sector do menial tasks like cooking, jobs that earn very little money.

The meeting also discussed the issue of armed groups, saying that they were often guilty of sexual violence and exploiting natural resources illegally.

The mineral sector in Rwanda aims to earn $400 million per year from exports by increasing production from 9,600 tonnes in 2013 to 14,000 tonnes by 2018.

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