The socio-economic impacts of artisanal mining on ordinary villagers in Insiza District, Zimbabwe

•Due to fear of losing financial support, parents no longer reprimand their children.•Newly found ‘wealth’ gives young men a sense of invincibility.•The artisanal mining has drastically increased levels of school drop-outs.•Moral and societal norms have been affected by artisanal gold mining. This study sought to understand how ordinary villagers in the artisanal mining areas of Insiza District, where Emthonjeni Women's Forum implemented a program titled ‘Women as strategic partners in peacebuilding’, are affected by the violence and conflicts emanating from the illegal and artisanal mining in the proximities of their villages. The project sought to strengthen resilience, social cohesion and women's security in socio economic and political conflict as well as strengthening knowledge of local women and traditional leaders on the referral pathways of addressing GBV, including the strengthening of stakeholder coordination in conflict mitigation, transformation and resolution. While men, boys, girls and women all experience violence in varying degrees, it was found that women feel the effects of violence and conflict the most as they experience it as direct victims, and vicariously when their husbands or sons participate in violent activities. This is because they bring their troubles home to the wives or mothers who often have to address the problems or live with the consequences of the men's actions. Gender is often one of the key determinants of what social spaces and opportunities might be available or not available to society or family. Therefore, people's vulnerability is shaped by their gender although other factors may also contribute to it. Most societies are constructed in such a way that women and children have the least power and natural rights and are therefore regarded as weak and powerless. They are especially vulnerable to violence as they are often unable to defend themselves or outrun perpetrators of violence. Lawlessness and violence in wards one and two of Insiza District, as in most parts of the country, are driven mostly by groups of armed young men—often ‘outsiders’, those who are not ordinarily residents of the two wards or from Insiza in general, who appear to act with impunity.