Newsletterdecember2013
1 like441 views
This newsletter welcomes readers to a new international research project on equitable employment for women in mining companies in Laos and Thailand. It provides an overview of the project partners and goals. Key events discussed include a capacity building workshop held in Thailand to align all partners, and presentations given at a conference to disseminate early findings. The project aims to understand concepts of gender equity in mining and influence related policies through research outcomes. It utilizes a blog, website and Twitter to facilitate ongoing communication among stakeholders.
Newsletterdecember2013
- 1. VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 DECEMBER 2013 Welcome to Women in Mining Newsletter Special points of interest: • Welcome to the Project • Capacity Building Workshop in Thailand • Our Communication Dear Friends, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to our international research project. The title of this project is ‘Equitable Employment for Women in Mining Companies in Laos and Thailand. As the principal investigator of this project, I really hope that this project will serve the international mining community and promote awareness of gender and mining as an important academic field. From day one of the project when AusAID announced that our team has been awarded ADRAS grants on women and mining in Laos and Thailand, We have been enthusiastic about the idea of this project and have been working with partners from Lao PDR, Thailand and Australia. I sincerely thank our academic partners: the National University of Laos, Burnet Institute, Thammasat University, Rajabhat Petchaburi University, the University of Melbourne, and RMIT University. We also need to thank our industrial partners: MMG LXML Sepon in Lao PDR and Akara Mining in Thailand for their support for the project. The key aim of our project is to understand the concept of equitable employment for women in the international mining industry, particularly in Lao PDR and Thailand. This issue is important for all stakeholders in international mining industry. We really hope that the process and outcomes of this research project will influence policies and practices in the international mining industry. More importantly, our team will aim to produce policy briefs and academic work that will be useful for the Governments of Lao PDR and Thailand. Finally, I would like to thank the Australian Government (Australian AID) for your financial support for this project. Associate Professor Natt Pimpa Principal Investigator Project Snapshots...do you know? The research has been funded by AusAID through the AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme (ADRAS) under an award titles Equitable Employment for Women in Mining Companies in Laos and Thailand . In May 2013, ADRAS awardees from 19 Australian universities and research institutions, along with researchers from Samoa, South Africa, Malawi, Thailand, India, the UK and USA were met in Canberra at the ADRAS Communications and Engagement Workshop. The workshop will help to improve the uptake and use of research evidence by connecting researchers with Australian Aid policy makers and identifying the tools to communicate research findings effectively. Our team also participated in this workshop and showcased the project to the international participants.
- 2. Capacity Building Workshop: 25-26 November 2013 Our team met in Bangkok on 25-26 November 2013. The capacity building workshop was one of the milestones of this project since we involved all key partners from Lao PDR, Thailand and Australia in the workshop. Jen Tyrell and Watinee Karnwong from the Australia Education International (AEI) also attended the first day of our workshop and discussed ideas on research and academic promotions among academic institutions and industrial partners in our region. We discussed details of the project as well as the nature of Australian Aid and ADRAS project. The common understanding among all partners is practical research helps to inform where and how our own and our partners’ resources can most effectively and efficiently be deployed. A robust and relevant knowledge base provides the evidence we need for sound development policies and programs. We believe that our project will lead to practical and academic outcomes that influence life and knowledge of people who are interested in international mining and gender equity. We also discussed research methodology, process and data collection, research plans and actions for 2014. The workshop was a great success for us. We look forward to seeing all partners again when we start the data collection process in each country. Project Communication We have designed several ways to support our communication in this project. PAGE 2 Twitter: We use twitter as a communication channel among our team , industrial partners and the Blog: We will include all mining community globally. Twitnews and activities from the ter is a way to keep our followers project to the blog. The blog up to date with current information can be accessed at: themiabout your business. Importantly, it dasresearchproject.blogspot.c lets followers communicate with om you too. You can follow our twitter : @miningforwomen. Website: We are in the process of the development of website. I certainly will update contents and design of the website. You can aacess the website at kttp;//seabiz.asia
- 3. VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 ADRAS Communications and Engagement Workshop More than 50 leading development researchers from around Australia and the world arrived in Canberra in May to kick off projects that range from boosting women’s rights in post-authoritarian regimes such as Egypt and Libya to studying the effects of Mongolia’s mining boom on herder livelihoods. The meeting marks the start of the latest round of the AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme (ADRAS). The scheme is AusAID’s flagship competitive research program, funding primary research projects to improve the quality and effectiveness of Australian aid in developing countries. The 2012 round awarded 50 grants to 31 Australian and international institutions totaling $32.9 million. AusAID and various other institutions from Australia and overseas. The communication strategy has been drafted and will be shared in our project website. Natt represented our team to participate in this workshop and discussed key strategies for communications and engagement with delegates from Presentation at the 2013 ICSSS Conference In July 2013, Rajabhat Mahasarakham University hosted the 3rd International Conference on Sciences and Social Sciences (ICSSS). The focus of the conference was development in Mekong region. Thus, there were a number of researchers from countries such as Thailand, Lao PDR, China, and Vietnam participating at the conference. We submitted two papers, base on our literature review and document analysis. The papers were accepted and presented to the participants at the conference. International Mining and Development: Lessons Learnt from Mekong is the first paper we presented at the conference. The focus of this paper is on the current actions of mining companies and their corporate social responsibility. The second paper from our project entitles corporate social responsibilities in Vietnam and Lao PDR: What has been done? The paper was well accepted by the research community and generated conversations on this issue among the participants. Finally….. Another Day, Another Month, Another Year. Another Smile, Another Tear, Another Winter, A Summer Too. May Lovely, Happy Times Decorate This Time Of The Season. May Warm, Special Memories Brighten Your New Year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! PAGE 3