Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Participation and Its Impact on the Livelihood of Rural Households in Tigray National Region State, Ethiopia
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Date
2020-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of artisanal and small-scale gold mining participation
on the livelihood of the rural HHs in Tigray National Region State, Ethiopia. The study employed mixed
research approaches. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaire from 160 participant
and 218 non-participant households, 50 KIIs, 15 FGDs and field observation. Purposive sampling was
used to select the study woredas, tabias and members of KIIs and FGDs whereas simple random sampling
was applied to draw the survey respondents in the study area. Data were analyzed using multiple
techniques. Descriptive analysis and independent sample t-test was used to compare mean difference
between participant and non-participant households. The Heckman two stage models was employed to
analyze the gold supply to the formal market agents. The food security status of sample households was
measured using HFIAS, HFCS, FEI and PSM. On the other hand, Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
and PSM were used to analyze the poverty status of households in the study area. STATA version 14 has
been used to run the probit and logistic regression outcomes. Finally, Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI)
was used to assess the vulnerability of livelihood assets in the study area. The results of the study revealed
that gold mining is an avenue of generating income for rural households in the study area. The issue of
governance in the ASM sector has been found defective. The regression outcome indicates that six variables
were found determinant factors affecting gold supply to the formal market and these were distance to the
nearest market place, distance to the mining sites, limited access to transportation, poor governance of the
ASM sector, and perception of miners and lack of access to credit service. Results from HFIAS, HFCS and
FEI indicate that participant households had better food security status than the non-participant
households. The results from NNM, KM and RM on the income and food security have shown that
households who had been involving in gold mining participation increased their annual income by
23,584.86 ETB and food security by a factor of 0.60. The regression results also demonstrates that sex of
household head, livestock ownership, off farm income of the households and lack of credit service were
found the determinants of households’ food security in the study area. With regard to the poverty status of
households, in education and health dimensions, participant and non-participant households were found
MPI poor whereas in the third dimension (living standard), the non-participant households were found
more MPI poor than their counterparts. Besides, results from NNM, KM and RM also indicate that the total
annual income and expenditure of participant households were found higher than the non-participant
households in the study area. Finally, results from LVI exhibits that of all the assets, the participant and
non-participant households were found extremely vulnerable in terms of natural capital by 0.76 and 0.71
respectively. The study recommends that mining policies, laws and regulations shall be framed based on
the local context. Regulating the black market of gold requires extra commitment from the government and
hence, there should be effective coordination between federal and regional governments. Miners shall be
trained on how to extract miners and protect its adverse effects. There must be a separate tier from federal
to local levels that specifically focuses on the ASM sector by allocating human and material resources to
improve the overall performance of the sector.
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Keywords
governance, gold supply, food security, poverty, vulnerability of livelihood assets