RCS provided consultants for the validation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative of Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Sierra Leone in association with Coffey International and Adam Smith International. Reports are available from the EITI website
Based on original and extensive empirical research in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this reportoffers an analysis of the conflict potential of mining in DRC and assesses the impact and conflict sensitivity of current donor interventions in the sector. This paper was incorporated into an edited volume of case studies and thematic analyses that identifies lessons learned in managing natural resources to facilitate the transition to peace. The volume is developed by the Environmental Law Institute, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), University of Tokyo, and Specialist Group on Armed Conflict and the Environment of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN’s) Commission on Environmental Law.
This paper, written in the context of the World Bank’s Country Economic Memorandum and Diagnostic Trade Integration Study in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), discusses the question of whether the mining sector can become a source of growth in the DRC. In doing so, it contributes to closing an analytical gap in the understanding of constraints, opportunities and potential economic and poverty impact of promoting the mining sector in the DRC. It also offers solid evidence base for those keen to engage with and leverage the DRC’s mining sector for development. The report includes a discussion of the political economy of the prevalent structures in the mining sector. It considers ongoing reindustrialisation processes and the fiscal linkages the mining sector presently generates.
This report, released by RCS and commissioned by the multi-donor Communities and Small Scale Mining initiative, the Crisis States Research Centre at the London School of Economics (LSE), and the Crisis Research Group at Ghent University, challenges recent suggestions that mineral trading in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the main cause of the ongoing conflict. Rather, it argues that the primary reason for insecurity in Eastern DRC is the inability of the Congolese state to control the monopoly of violence and protect its citizens. The widely reported military predation on the minerals trade is another symptom of insecurity and thus intervening in the trade is not enough to solve the crisis.
This report, based on research funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, The London School of Economics and Political Science’s Crisis States Research Centre and the Conflict Research Group at Ghent University, urges policy makers, the private sector and other stakeholders to commit to reforming the existing trade in minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) instead of banning or disrupting it. The report, suggests that military gain from the trade in Eastern DRC’s minerals, which generated at least 4m US$ to the Congolese state in tax revenue in 2008, is not the primary cause of insecurity and violence in North Kivu. Though the report acknowledges deep-seated problems with the trade, it goes further and suggests that, in contrast to current policy approaches, security and trade issues should be addressed separately as trade-based solutions to security issues, such as sanctions, are likely to have little effect on the perpetuation of the conflict.
Transfair USA, with funding from the Tiffany Foundation, commissioned this study to assess the feasibility and desirability of developing a Fair Trade Standard and Certification system for diamonds. This is born of momentum in the diamond industry to address not just the issue of conflict diamonds, but development issues too. The goal of Fair Trade is to ‘empower farmers and workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace’. Fair Trade Principles include a fair price, fair labour conditions, direct trade, democratic and transparent organisations, community development and environmental sustainability. The report’s aim is to assess whether and how Fair Trade certification could deliver on this goal and these principles within the diamond industry. (See also www.transfairusa.org)
This research report explores synergies and scope for collaboration between the Federal Government of Germany's "Certified Trading Chains in Mineral Production" (CTC) project and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (the EITI). The report highlights where these two initiatives - started with the aim to increase transparency in the extractive industries - overlap. It maps out how both initiatives could materialise effectiveness and efficiency increases, if they took advantage of these synergies. The report was written by Nicholas Garrett and commissioned by the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources.
Nicholas Garrett has written this report commissioned by the multi-donor Communities and Small-scale Mining Secretariat based at the World Bank. The report details the production and trade in cassiterite (tin ore) in conflict torn Eastern Democratic Republic ofthe Congo and their implications for poverty reduction and security in the region. The study finds that armed groups continue to be directly involved in tin mining in North Kivu, but warns that the emphasis on the military dimension of the mining sector diverts attention away from the other underlying opportunities and pathologies in the regional minerals sector, which have to be addressed for buoyant tin prices to help lift the population of North Kivu out of poverty, and for the tin trade to become a driver of peace.Nicholas Garrett wrote this report commissioned by the multi-donor Communities and Small-scale Mining Secretariat based at the World Bank. The report details the production and trade in cassiterite (tin ore) in conflict torn Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and their implications for poverty reduction and security in the region. The study finds that armed groups continue to be directly involved in tin mining in North Kivu, but warns that the emphasis on the military dimension of the mining sector diverts attention away from the other underlying opportunities and pathologies in the regional minerals sector, which have to be addressed for buoyant tin prices to help lift the population of North Kivu out of poverty, and for the tin trade to become a driver of peace.
This in-depth research report identifies new approaches towards the regulation of trading artisanally mined diamonds. The report was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development and was published by the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations, Belgium.
This 2007 preliminary research report written by Nicholas Garrett explores the politico-economic challenges and opportunities for the EITI to contribute to transparent revenue flows in the DRC’s artisanal and small scale mining sector. The report is published on the EITI website.
This 2007 study includes a preliminary facts-only case study written by Nicholas Garrett for the UK Department for International Development (DFID)'s 'Trading for Peace' research project on the political economy of cassiterite exploitation and trade flows in North Kivu. The study was commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and published on the DFID website.