Ruth Epwoka

During the implementation of the planetGOLD Kenya project, we gained valuable insights into the importance of targeted site and group selection. These lessons played a critical role in shaping the project's success, enabling us to direct our efforts in the most impactful ways while ensuring active community involvement and fostering long-term sustainability.

The Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) sector plays a key role in Kenya’s economy. It supports the livelihoods of thousands of miners nationwide. However, the sector has long been faced by several challenges. This includes environmental degradation, unsafe mining practices, and the heavy use of toxic chemicals such as mercury. The planetGOLD Kenya project, aims to address these issues by creating a mercury-free, sustainable future for the ASGM sector. This article explores key lessons learned from the project’s journey, particularly in successfully fostering collaboration with county

The planetGOLD Kenya project together with the State Department for Cooperative has embarked on an awareness campaign and trained women on the benefits of formalizing project sites as they professionalize and formalize mining activities. After training, the project helped women form new marketing cooperatives. Learn more in this article.

The project covers nine Sub-Counties that collaborate with relevant regional government agencies, county governments, and mining communities to support the industry's formalization by setting up channels for artisanal miners to access information on lowering mercury use and encouraging ethical mining practices.

The planetGOLD Kenya project is supporting the formalization of miners by encouraging the establishment of women-led groups. Once formalized, these groups of miners will be able to apply for mining permits and by extension improve the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services.

In July and August, the planetGOLD Kenya team embarked on a mission to map out the ASGM landscape in four counties to inform the project's activities. This blog - our first from Kenya! - provides a sneak peak of what the team discovered during this important exercise and what lies ahead.