Event Highlights and Programme

Keynote Address

Vuyiswa Ramokgopa (MEC, Gauteng) revealed that while women perform over 70% of agricultural labour, they own just 20% of land — exposing systemic exclusion and calling for urgent redistribution, access to finance, and procurement justice.

Opening remarks by Nkateko Chauke (Oxfam South Africa) and Prof Tinuade Ojo (UJ – CSRGC) framed the day with a sharp analysis of how patriarchy, capitalism, and extractivism suppress African women’s agency in the very sectors they sustain. Both called for a structural reorientation of power and financing in extractives and agriculture.

Panel 1: Women’s Leadership, Safety, and Justice in Mining Communities

This panel explored how occupational violence, lack of infrastructure, and cultural gatekeeping bar women from leadership roles in mining.
Speakers called for:

• Trauma-informed mining policy

• Mandatory gender audits in safety protocols

• Resourcing of women’s leadership networks at shaft level

“You can’t lead from the bottom of a pit. We need systems that stop burying women alive — literally and institutionally.”

Speakers included:

• Mr. Adrian Joseph (SAIIA)

• Dr Comfort Asokoro-Ogaji (WIMA)

• Dr Dana Gampel (Eskom/JET)

• Joan Matjuda (Union Mine)

Session Spotlight: Feminist Futures in Extractives – Climate, Digital, and Institutional Transformations

This critical session centered a feminist reimagining of extractive governance beyond performative ESG.

Speakers warned of extractive digital economies and advocated for infrastructure that serves women, rather than surveils them.

Monica M Mbugua (SARW | AMAP) framed the Africa Mining Accountability Platform (AMAP) as a living feminist accountability system, integrating community-led ESG breach reporting, procurement equity audits, escalation pathways, digital justice tools, and trauma-informed data governance — all grounded in the lived realities of mining-affected communities and aligned with Just Energy Transition (JET) plans.

Themes included:

• Feminist tech ownership

• Cross-border cooperatives

• Risks of ESG greenwashing

• Infrastructure as survival

Panel 3: Feminist Pathways to a Just Agricultural Transition – Land, Climate, and Collective Power

Speakers spotlighted land struggles, climate resilience, and agroecological justice rooted in indigenous and women-led systems.
Panelists challenged donor rigidity and called for land redistribution as a climate solution.

Panel 4: Unlocking Economic Justice – Women’s Access to Markets, Funding, and Food Sovereignty

Speakers addressed how financial gatekeeping, colonial supply chains, and inaccessible procurement mechanisms systematically shut out African women.

Calls were made for:

• Feminist financial tools

• Radical procurement reform

• Regional trade systems designed by African producers

Strategic Themes and Insights

• Justice Requires Infrastructure: Without Wi-Fi, fibre, and safe training spaces, there is no transition.

• Communities Already Lead: Women are innovating in energy, agriculture, and land — policy must follow, not dictate.

• Feminist Tech Must Be Owned: ESG tools must be governed by communities to prevent extractive digital capture.

• Finance is a Feminist Battleground: Climate finance must shift from elite gatekeeping to mutual aid and gender-equitable procurement

Challenges and Reflections

• Tokenistic engagement persists across climate and extractives policy.

• Digital justice risks replicating extractivism if tech governance is donor- or state-led.

• Policy frameworks remain disconnected from lived realities unless co-designed with women.

Key Quotes

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution will happen to us — or with us. Feminist digital infrastructure is survival.”
“We must build cross-border cooperatives. The system excludes women by design.”
“You can write beautiful policy, but unless it’s grounded in the microcosm of women’s daily lives — it’s just paper.”

Calls to Action – To the G20, national governments, and funders

• Integrate AMAP-style platforms into ESG and JET frameworks

• Invest in feminist infrastructure: Wi-Fi, transport, digital tools, and safe learning spaces

• End elite-driven finance: Shift procurement and funding to women-led businesses and local cooperatives

• Fund community-owned tech: Support grievance dashboards and data justice platforms owned by women

• Embed women in power: From contracts to enforcement, women must shape and govern transition systems

Closing Reflections

Dr S’phumelele Duma (UJ – IPATC) and Isobel Frye (Oxfam) wrapped the day with a call to center Pan-African feminist governance in T20 dialogues and ensure that community-based evidence drives all G20 policy tracks.

African women are not passive recipients — they are architects of justice, equity, and transition. Their leadership in digital infrastructure, mining reform, land systems, and procurement equity must become the backbone of global just transition frameworks.

AMAP will continue embedding community-first governance tools, tracking ESG abuses, and challenging global actors to shift from rhetoric to redistributive action.

The justice test is simple: follow the lead of the women already doing the work.