Gender impact assessments (GIAs) are key to assessing the potential and ongoing impacts of mining operations on people of different genders, ages, and sociocultural backgrounds. However, a recent review by the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) (2022) found that governments, mining companies, and other stakeholders do not conduct sufficient,comprehensive, systemic, and structured gender analyses before or during the mining project cycle.

For this reason, the IGF and Global Affairs Canada co-organized an event to explore how governments, civil society, industry, and practitioners can take action to support GIAs.

The 3-hour side event took place in the margins of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada on Sunday, March 5, 2023, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This event follows IGF’s increased work to support gender equality in mining governance and the release of the global review on how to integrate gender into mining impact assessments. There were approximately 50 attendees to the side event, including the panellists.