Human insecurities in gold mining: A systematic review of evidence from Ghana

Abstract

Adverse mining effects, notably the uncontrolled spread and consequences of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), are growing concerns in sub-Saharan Africa. A securitization discourse is often used to justify a military-style approach toward illegal mining but fails to acknowledge the multiple dimensions of insecurities arising from mining. A human security approach allows taking a more holistic perspective but has hardly been applied to the mining sector. We address this gap by unraveling the insecurities arising from gold mining in Ghana based on a systematic literature review of empirical studies on mining impacts across multiple disciplines. Results reveal that the reviewed literature predominantly focuses on environmental and health insecurities, less on economic, food, and community insecurities, and hardly on personal and political insecurities. Recommended governance responses increasingly call for multidimensional and integrated approaches, considering that gold mining – particularly ASM – is situated in multifunctional landscapes and part of multidimensional livelihoods. We conclude that a human security approach enables a comprehensive analysis of a country's mining sector but still bears the risk of a ‘securitization trap’. We therefore advocate multistakeholder dialogue and integrated landscape approaches as the way forward to deal with the insecurities arising from a mining sector largely characterized by informality.