International Women in Mining (IWiM), a leading global women’s organisation focused on pursuing gender equality in the mining sector, has announced the launch of the 2021 International Women in Resources Mentoring Programme (IWRMP), in collaboration with Metisphere IWRMP is an annual cross-company initiative established to actively empower women in the mining sector by providing mentees with opportunities to accelerate their all-round professional growth.
IWRMP 2021 will run from April to October 2021 and will be the fourth consecutive edition of the programme. It is anticipated that, similar to 2020, IWRMP 2021 will be a completely online offering. Since its initial launch in 2018, 130 mentees and 44 scholarship recipients have participated in this initiative. Numbers have increased y/y with over 20 countries represented in 2020. When surveyed, the 106 IWRMP 2020 participants unanimously declared that they would recommend the programme to their colleagues.
In advance of next year’s programme, support has already been secured from Rio Tinto, Newmont Corporation, New Gold, SRK Consulting and Centerra Gold, and IWiM is actively seeking additional sponsors for this innovative programme. Becoming a sponsor is a public statement of commitment to supporting female employee career progression and building and sustaining a pipeline of future female leaders.
“What makes IWMRP unique is its combination of global reach and intersectionality, which enable mentees to benefit from contact with mentors and fellow mentees that they may not otherwise have been possible. The programme is designed to meet the needs of the highly globalised mining sector, both now and into the future,” commented Barbara Dischinger, IWRMP Programme Director.
“In 2021, we look forward to having more companies within the sector participate as the programme is equally beneficial to mentors. It is a high-performance framework that fosters a ‘reverse mentoring’ attitude that gives senior industry figures, both male and female, an opportunity to further hone their leadership skills,” she added.
By inviting more mining companies to take advantage of the opportunity to join the existing IWRMP 2021 sponsors, IWiM is fulfilling its mandate to make the mining industry more inclusive and diverse – and as a result, more successful in every way.