"If you don't find anything, you can't eat" - Mining livelihoods and income, gender roles, and food choices in northern Guinea.

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) continues to grow as a viable economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa. The health and environmental impacts of the industry, notably linked to the use of potentially toxic chemicals, has been well documented. What has not been explored to the same extent is how pressures associated with ASM affect food choices of individuals and families living in mining camps. This paper presents research conducted in 18 mining sites in northern Guinea exploring food choices and the various factors affecting food decision-making practices. Two of the most influential factors to emerge from this study are income variability and gender roles. Results from this study suggest that through artisanal mining, women have the opportunity to earn a larger income that would otherwise be unavailable through agriculture. However, this benefit of potentially earning a larger income is often reduced or constrained by existing gender roles both at the mines and in the home, such as disparity in pay between men and women and increased pressures on women's time. This limits the potential benefit to household food decision-making that could have been gained from higher income. These results do not seek to establish one livelihood as superior; rather, they demonstrate that even when presented with opportunities to earn higher incomes, women still face many of the same barriers and challenges that they would in other economic activities. Additionally, while work and time demands on women change upon arrival in the mining camps, existing gender roles and expectations do not, further restricting women's decision-making capacity.

Food Security in Artisanal Mining Communities: An Exploration of Rural Markets in Northern Guinea.

The number of people engaged in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has grown rapidly in the past twenty years, but they continue to be an understudied population experiencing high rates of malnutrition, poverty, and food insecurity. This paper explores how characteristics of markets that serve ASM populations facilitate and pose challenges to acquiring a nutritious and sustainable diet. The study sites included eight markets across four mining districts in the Kankan Region in the Republic of Guinea. Market descriptions to capture the structure of village markets, as well as twenty in-depth structured interviews with food vendors at mining site markets were conducted. We identified three forms of market organization based on location and distance from mining sites. Markets located close to mining sites offered fewer fruit and vegetable options, as well as a higher ratio of prepared food options as compared with markets located close to village centers. Vendors were highly responsive to customer needs. Food accessibility and utilization, rather than availability, are critical for food security in non-agricultural rural areas such as mining sites. Future market-based nutrition interventions need to consider the diverse market settings serving ASM communities and leverage the high vendor responsiveness to customer needs.