Research Program: Natural Resources
Transparency and Formalization of Gold Supply Chains in Eastern DR Congo
May 12, 2020Advancing incident reporting and community participation in responsible sourcing From January 2018 till December 2019, IPIS and its partner CEGEMI (Catholic University of Bukavu) carried out a capacity enhancement project in the gold mining sector in Eastern Congo, financed by the European Partnership for Responsible Minerals (EPRM). The project was composed of two complementary parts: 1) a mining
How much does a miner earn? Assessment of miner’s revenue; basic needs study in the DRC
May 7, 2020How much does a miner earn in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)? Can a miner’s family cover its basic needs? In a new report, IPIS and Levin Sources compare the income of miners and their basic needs expenditures, to provide a better and nuanced understanding of why ASM communities seem to remain extremely poor and identify the factors that impact their income. This report is the first to fin
Monitoring Gold in Eastern DRC: Ground-based Incident Reporting
May 3, 2020With the support of the European Partnership for Responsible Minerals (EPRM), IPIS set up an independent, transparent and participatory platform for incident reporting and community empowerment in responsible sourcing in the Eastern DR Congo gold sector.IPIS has engaged in capacity enhancement of 7 mining cooperatives through a series of trainings and follow-up visits led by CEGEMI (Centre d’Exper
Mapping artisanal mining sites in the Western Central African Republic (2019)
April 7, 2020This report presents an analysis of the artisanal mining sector in western Central African Republic (CAR) and outlines some of the challenges surrounding gold and diamond mining, trade and export. From April to July 2019, the International Peace Information Service (IPIS), in partnership with national authorities, carried out a mapping of artisanal mining sites in western CAR. A total of 322 sites
Mapping Artisanal Small-Scale Mining in the Central African Republic
April 3, 2020In February 2019, IPIS began partnering with the Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR) project from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to increase awareness and understanding of the opportunities and challenges of establishing responsible gold supply chains in the Central African Republic (CAR). IPIS supported the Ministry of Mines in mapping artisanal mining sites in west
Mapping ASM sites in the Central African Republic: Official Presentation in Bangui
February 3, 2020In January 2020, IPIS presented the results of its diagnostic report and mapping of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sites and gold supply-chains in western Central African Republic (CAR) to national authorities and civil society organizations during a three-days’ workshop in Bangui. The objectives of the mapping exercise are to support the CAR Ministry of Mines and Geology (MMG) and other k
IPIS Insights on Due Diligence in Mineral Sourcing – Regulating Responsible Sourcing of 3TG Minerals
January 9, 2020Comparative analysis of Section 1502 of the US Dodd-Frank Act and the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation, lessons learned and risks for implementation
Conflict diamond certification scheme unable and unwilling to reform
November 22, 2019“Conflict diamond certification scheme unable and unwilling to reform” Today, another three-year reform cycle of the Kimberley Process came to an end without meaningful change. Participating states could only find consensus on insignificant changes to the scope and governance of the scheme. They once again failed to effectively protect communities in diamond mining areas from ongoing abuses. In th
Ground-Based Incident Reporting in eastern DRC – Progress Report 3
November 15, 2019In January 2018, the European Partnership for Responsible Minerals (EPRM) granted IPIS funds to implement an independent, transparent and participatory platform for incident reporting and community empowerment in responsible sourcing in the eastern DRC gold sector. This platform will have to contribute in improving transparency around follow-up and resolution of incidents in cooperation with relev
11 December 2019 – IPIS presents “The social, economic and human rights impact of mining: the case of Tanzania”
November 13, 2019IPIS kindly invites you to a presentation of its work on mapping the social, economic and human rights impact of mining in Tanzania. IPIS will present the results of its wide-scale mobile data collection on artisanal and industrial mining in northwest Tanzania. This presentation will shed light on the nature, scope and impact of mining in Tanzania and, more generally, on IPIS’ approach and methodo
Piloting a digital stakeholder engagement platform for Tanzania’s mining sector: Incident tracking & mobile surveys
October 31, 2019As part of a project on mining and human rights, IPIS undertook a large-scale mobile data collection exercise on operational, socio-economic and human rights aspects of artisanal and industrial mining in northwest Tanzania. Building on this baseline data gathered in the first phase of this project on the nature, scope and impact of artisanal and small-scale mining and local community perceptions o
Voix du Congo: “Misisi, why so many incidents in the gold supply chain?”
October 3, 2019See our series : VOIX DU CONGO In the “Voix du Congo” series, the non-profit organisation “Action pour la paix et le développement” (APDE) presents a study of incidents in the gold supply chain in Misisi, DRC. This study is published in the “Voix du Congo” series, a series of publications by local partners and that aims to bring their work to a wider audience. APDE is an NGO with a socio-l
Real Care is Rare: An on-the-ground perspective on blood diamonds and the fifth ‘C’
September 26, 2019A new report, Real Care is Rare. An On-The-Ground Perspective on Blood Diamonds and the Fifth ‘C’, highlights the existence of modern day blood diamonds due to ongoing ties between diamonds and brutal human rights abuse (amongst other ethics issues) in certain diamond mining locales on the African continent and beyond. The report, issued by the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, points out
IPIS welcomes University of Antwerp Summer School for workshop on artisanal diamond mining
September 2, 2019On August 28th, 2019, 21 students from the University of Antwerp’s ‘Mine to Finger’ Summer School on diamonds were engaged on “The use of digital maps and open data in the analysis of artisanal mining” with a case-study of the Central African Republic (CAR). The students, with diverse backgrounds, engaged in critical and nuanced discussions on artisanal diamond mining. The workshop kicked-off with
Design of the ICGLR Regional Database and Visualisation Platform on Mineral Flows
August 31, 2019In 2018, IPIS developed a database and delivered training for the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). The objective was to deliver a working prototype webtool to investigate the relation between mining exports lots and the artisanal mining sites where their content originated.In 2019, IPIS and Levin Sources have been engaged by Impact to assist in building responsible suppl
Mapping the Socio-Economic and Human Rights Impact of Mining in Northwest Tanzania
August 31, 2019In January 2017, IPIS started working on a project to map the socio-economic and human rights impact of mining in northwest Tanzania. Funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation as part of a programme on Human Rights and Digitalisation, the project used digital technologies to bridge information gaps around mining in Tanzania. The project focussed on the four regions of Geita, Shinyanga, Mara an
Dissecting the social license to operate: Local community perceptions of industrial mining in northwest Tanzania
August 28, 2019Discussions on industrial mining often revolve around the sector’s contribution to domestic revenue generation. The local impact on the rural communities wherein most of these companies operate receives much less attention. To bring the voices of these communities to the centre of the debate, IPIS conducted surveys on community perspectives in 32 villages nearby six industrial mines in northwest T
Mapping ASM sites in the Central African Republic: An update from our field teams
July 2, 2019Since February 2019, IPIS is partnering with the Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR) project from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to increase awareness and understanding of the opportunities and challenges of establishing responsible gold supply chains in the Central African Republic (CAR). As part of this project, IPIS is supporting the Ministry of Mines in mapping a
Artisanal and small-scale mining mapping in the Runde Rural District of Zimbabwe
June 28, 2019IPIS and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) collaborated to map artisanal and small-scale mining in the Runde Rural district of Zimbabwe. Following a training on Mobile Data Collection (MDC) tools organized by IPIS in November 2018, ZELA conducted a pilot study on Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) in the area. Five groups of enumerators from seven wards in Zvishavane visited 31
IPIS’ Annual Report 2018
June 27, 2019This 2018 annual report provides an overview of IPIS’ research projects, capacity enhancement and outreach activities throughout last year. IPIS consolidated its work in DRC, Central African Republic and Tanzania and deepened its expertise on mapping, data analysis and research on conflict drivers, natural resources, Business & Human Rights and arms trade. IPIS worked closely with civil societ