A special day was dedicated to young women on Saturday 16 September 2023 in Ouagadougou. Known as Ladies’ Days, the event was organised by the Club of Mining Engineers of Burkina Faso in partnership with the Association of Women in the Mining Sector of Burkina Faso (Association des Femmes du Secteur Minier du Burkina – AFEMIB) and the Chamber of Mines of Burkina Faso. Under the theme “Female leadership and promotion of skills: Impact on young people”, the aim of the day was to “emancipate young girls, help them to become tomorrow’s leaders by raising their awareness and enabling each young girl to have her own impact on tomorrow’s society”, said Ariane Coulibally, mining and planning engineer at ORZONE BOMBORE and head of the Ladies’ Days organising committee. For her, Ladies’ Day is also about offering girls a day other than International Women’s Day to develop their leadership skills. With women’s qualities such as resilience, listening skills and empathy, this can galvanise employees in the mining sector to achieve their goals”, said Dr Emma Marie Blanche Kantiono, Director of ESSAKANE Solar. In her view, female leadership helps to create an easy and peaceful working environment, thereby contributing to the achievement of results in the mining sector, which is quite special. According to Cyrille Bado, promoter of the African Women Leaders Forum and a panelist at the event, female leadership can bring a great deal to the mining sector in Africa. “Women have a certain resilience and skills to bring to the table. Developing their leadership in this sector will enable a number of problems to be taken into account and resolved”, he said. He explains that when a mine is deployed in a locality, there are many difficulties, and it is the women who pay the heavy price. If there are no women in this field to understand and carry the voice of the voiceless that are women, this will not contribute to harmonious participatory development. Rachidatou Bayao, a student in computer networks and telecommunications, believes that the day’s various presentations by the panelists enabled her to understand what female leadership is and to become aware of a number of obstacles to women’s leadership. “I learnt a lot from the training I received during the day,” she says. “I acquired more knowledge about women’s leadership and that gave me more confidence”, said Jeannine Tiendrebeogo, a student in hygiene, health and the environment and a member of AFEMIB. This is the first Ladies’ Day. It is one of a number of activities organised by the Club of Mining Engineers of Burkina Faso to promote the mining sector in Burkina Faso.
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