DO invest in women’s rights because women’s rights are human rights and need to be upheld. Additionally, investments in minerals supply chains that promote women’s rights can yield higher and more sustainable returns in terms of mineral production, poverty reduction and broader development effects.

DO assess and mitigate gender risks within your mineral supply chains, your programmes, and financial flows by setting up a human rights due diligence system to ensure that serious abuses are identified, addressed, prevented, mitigated and accounted for. This includes attention to female workers’ rights including occupational safety and health, gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual harassment that occur in mineral supply chains.

DO realize that women are disproportionally affected by environmental risks in mineral supply chains. Women experience environmental damage and degradation differently and more severely than men due to women’s role in food security and primary responsibility for management of household water and energy needs.

DO ensure that women’s voices are heard and their work in mineral production and trade is valued. Use inclusive and participatory approaches to raise women’s awareness about their rights and how to engage in important decision-making processes, such as their role in negotiating their community’s prior and informed consent to develop a mining project, access to land and compensation.

DO assess and optimize opportunities within your minerals supply chains, to advance women’s rights across mineral supply chains. Simply targeting the women with training at key points in the supply chain can ameliorate a range of inequalities, as can distributing a proportion of mineral royalties and taxes to respond to women’s priorities

DO insist on measures to realize women’s rights across mineral supply chains. Make it your good business practice to take practical actions to realize women’s rights, and expect affiliates, suppliers, customers, and other supply chain actors to do the same. Governments, companies and financial institutions can apply pressure and assist upstream suppliers active in the extraction, transport and trade of minerals to execute gender impact assessments to ensure their projects minimise harm and play a positive role in addressing gender inequality.

DO make a gender action plan and make your reports publicly available. Within the gender action plan, describe how to identify and address gender risks in your supply chain and incorporate practical opportunities to rectify gender inequality. Embed this in audits and annual reporting, using relevant indicators to monitor performance.

DO demonstrate leadership and commitment, including within company management systems, to show support for women’s rights comes from the top. Use leadership statements and organizational policies and procedures to communicate your commitment to gender equality and women’s rights both internally and externally to your suppliers and the public. Develop capacity internally and across your networks to build understanding of how gender inequalities are sustained in mineral supply chains and stimulate action to redress the balance.

DO introduce measures to counter risks of backlash as women become more empowered. Resistance and opposition may arise as the traditional domain of men is challenged and efforts to “keep women in their place,” ranging from sexual harassment and sexual and physical violence to threats and public humiliation, represent additional risks of serious abuses. Include these in your risk management plan and suggest adequate mitigation, monitoring and accountability mechanisms

DO get the facts and use them! There is a growing body of evidence on gender inequality and women’s rights violations in extraction, transport and trade of minerals. Support gender research and strengthen the evidence base. Ensure that your organization collects data sensitively on the gender dimensions of serious abuses.