Abstract
This chapter strengthens the case for formalizing and supporting artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labour-intensive mineral extraction and processing – in sub-Saharan Africa by focusing on how the sector enhances food security and builds resilience in the region’s vulnerable rural communities. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, there is a long history of ASM and smallholder activity dovetailing one other, the former generating income which helps to sustain the latter. Rarely have these synergies been recognized in policy, however, because most ASM activities in the region are entrenched in the informal economy. The policy frameworks and laws now in place for ASM in sub-Saharan Africa are largely inappropriate and have tended to stifle, as opposed to facilitate, the sector’s formalization. Showcasing the sector’s contribution to food security and rural resilience, themes which map directly on to the Sustainable Development Goals, could stimulate a much-needed critical rethink of these regulatory apparatuses, with the goal of laying the groundwork for more effective formalization strategies. It would, at a minimum, change the narrative about ASM in sub-Saharan Africa altogether, helping to finally cement the sector’s position on the region’s development agenda.