The Drive to Lift the Artisanal Stigma

RAPAPORT... The community of Fandehun is not used to pomp and ceremony.The modest village in the heart of Sierra Leone's Kono District has beensustained by diamond mining for over 50 years but lacks the basics many takefor granted - notably, safe drinking water. Women, and often children, walkmiles to fetch water from a neighboring village, and they tend to use the samesource for all their needs, be it cooking or bathing.It was therefore an important step for the townsfolk whenlocal officials, including government ministers, gathered in early February toinaugurate a well for the community. The significance of the event lay not only in providing animportant water source, but also in the fact that it was funded by artisanaldiamond miners who live there, explains Doroth?(C)e Gizenga, executive director ofthe Diamond Development Initiative (DDI). In Sierra Leone, DDI is encouraging miners to put aside apercentage of their profits from diamond sales for community development.Gizenga hopes Fandehun's example will motivate other artisanal miningcommunities to fall in line with DDI's programs. Setting the barCommunity development is one of five focal points DDI hasadopted in its work to bring greater structure to the artisanal mining sector. The nonprofit also engages with governments to sensitizetheir mining policies to the needs of artisanal diggers; works to registerminers and organize them into cooperatives; provides professional training suchas first-aid response and diamond valuation; and seeks ways to raise miners'incomes by, for example, facilitating having new buyers operate in the country.DDI took a significant step toward achieving those goalswhen it launched the Maendeleo Diamond Standards in April, which it claimsenable ethical diamond production by artisanal and small-scale miners. As more miners adopt the certification system, Gizengaexpects artisanal communities will increasingly be included in a broader systemof responsible supply chains. Slowly, the wider diamond industry is engagingmore with the artisanal sector, she acknowledges, with De Beers, theGemological Institute of America (GIA) and the Rapaport Group among those withprojects in the communities. Fair valueDe Beers launched its GemFair program in Sierra Leone lastApril. It was a "big jump for a large-scale miner to work with the artisanalsector in this way," notes Feriel Zerouki, De Beers' vice president ofinternational relations and ethical initiatives. Through GemFair, the company acts as an international buyer,while working with the miners to raise transparency and improve environmentalstandards around their operations. That means the miners must adhere to theMaendeleo system and fulfill additional De Beers standards covering factorsthat extend beyond the mine site - such as trading, and meeting thesource-disclosure requirements of the Organisation for Economic Co-operationand Development (OECD). Having set up a local team in Sierra Leone, De Beers hascommitted to making an offer on any diamond presented to it, at the same priceit would make to any other of its partners. The miners don't have to take theoffer, but at least they have an outlet, Zerouki explains.Where the weakness lies "Our hope is that GemFair will improve the miners' overallideas, and to do that, we need to bring the community on a journey with us,"Zerouki stresses. "We work with them to understand the issues, and work toimplement better standards and to empower the miners when it comes to diamondvaluation." The miners are keen to learn how to evaluate a diamond sothey have better negotiating power when selling, explains Gizenga. DDI isworking to facilitate training in this area so that each community has anexpert who can serve as a resource for the miners, she adds. Reaching furtherThat, at least, is the plan. DDI has a long way to go in allareas. Of approximately 300,000 diamond miners in Sierra Leone, about 1,000have been trained in the Maendeleo standards since the pilot program started in2012. It is also focused on registering more miners, with about one-quarter ofthe estimated 800,000 diamond miners in the DRC listed on its systems. Thenthere are other countries with sizable artisanal mining communities that stillneed to be tackled, such as Guinea and parts of South America. It's a mission Gizenga urges the international industry toembrace further, especially, as Zerouki notes, since there's still a stigmaabout the operating standards in the artisanal sector. "The artisanal miners are part of your family, they're apart of our industry," Gizenga stresses. "Pull them up and you'll trulybenefit, not only reputationally, but also in the fight for natural diamondsversus lab-grown diamonds. We really need to focus on upscaling the artisanalmining sector, because that's where the Achilles' heel is." A matter of principlesThe Maendeleo Diamond Standards provide a transparentcertification system for artisanal and small-scale diamond mining, designed toconnect the sector with responsible supply chains, according to the DiamondDevelopment Initiative. It's based on eight principles: Legal issues Consent and community engagement Human and workers' rights Health and safety Violence-free operations Environmental management Interactions with large-scale mining Site closureJewelers connect withdiggersThis past April, a delegation of jewelers and diamantairesvisited Sierra Leone on a mission organized by the Rapaport Group. The 29delegates from nine different countries met with government representatives,diamond dealers operating in the country, and diggers and their communities tounderstand the challenges facing the small-scale mining sector. They also wentto digging sites, including the one where the 709-carat Peace Diamond wasdiscovered. The idea was to engage with everyone and get all parties onboard in the drive for an ethical and transparent trade in Sierra Leone,explained Ezi Rapaport, founder and CEO of Empower Africa - a company that aimsto promote sustainable economic development in Africa through human capitaldevelopment. Empower Africa was instrumental in organizing the Rapaport Group'sSierra Leone trade mission. He outlined three goals for improving the local diamondtrade: 1. Ensuring the diggers get fair market value for theirgoods. 2. Getting a government solution in place to guarantee thisfair value. Initiatives include a proposal to introduce an auctionmechanism for their diamonds. 3. Ensuring traceability of artisanal production, with theaim of branding them as Development Diamonds. These would garner premium pricesthat can be reinvested in development and infrastructure. "Addressing the challenges of the artisanal mining sector isvery important," the Empower Africa CEO said. "This is arguably the largestsector in the industry, but there has historically been a disconnect with therest of the industry. There's still a lot of work to do." This article was first published in the June 2019 issue of Rapaport Magazine.Image: Artisanal mining in Sierra Leone.