This document summarizes the work of the Working Group for Artisanal and Alluvial Diamond Production at a meeting in Washington DC. It discusses the group's efforts to implement recommendations around improving traceability, regulating artisanal mining and trade, reducing illicit cross-border trade, and encouraging miners to enter the formal economy. Some progress was made, but many challenges remain, including bringing more informal actors into the regulated system and addressing conflicts between miners, businesses, and other stakeholders. The group hopes an upcoming seminar will help address these ongoing issues in artisanal mining.

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HER EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT OF THE KIMBERLEY
PROCESS;
EXCELLENCIESMINISTERS;
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN;
It is a privilege for me as the Chairman of the Working Group for
Artisanal and Alluvial Diamond Production to speak in this Meeting
held here at Washington DC, a pleasant and historic City.
I want to thank the organizers of this meeting for the hospitality that
has been reserved as well as working conditions available for us.
Excellency President
This Intercessional meeting occurs in a context where the current
debate on the reform of the Kimberley Process reached its most
crucial phase; there are a lot of expectations regarding the future of
the KP in the eve of it ten anniversary.
The Working Group Mission was to ensure proper compliance with
the recommendations of the Declaration of Moscow on improving
internal controls in alluvial artisanal and small scale mining.
The main recommendations were:
1. Ensuring traceability of the diamond production from mine to
the export;
2. Regulating artisanal diamond mining;
3. Regulating the trade of alluvial diamonds;
4. Tackling illicit cross border trade;
5. Encouraging artisanal miners to move into the formal
economy.
Each one of these recommendations has a number of tasks to be
run by members of the Group, in accordance with the Action Plan of
the Artisanal sector in each country. What assessment can we do in
the settings of the recommendations of the Declaration of Moscow
up to now that we are reflecting about the future of KP? What are its
progresses up to date?

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Most of the Group members have registered huge advancement on
regulatory frameworks for the Artisanal diamonds mining in terms of
production and trading. In this regard the daily challenges continue
to be the registering of a big number of artisanal miners, and the
efficient provided record of the production and Trading in the
database. The traceability of mine to export is a huge indicator of
internal control.
The fight on the illicit diamond trade across-borders is an issue of
bilateral and regional cooperation in the implementation of common
strategies and measures, mainly the harmonization of taxes as well
reinforces Police Customs to prevent the flow of diamonds out the
chain and punish individuals involved.
Apart of these main areas mentioned above, in-depth discussions
were conducted and others in course, such as the following issues:
I) THE TRANSPARENCY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE OF FUNDS,
MANAGEMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF REVENUE RESULTING FROM THE
DIAMONDS BUSINESS OPERATIONS;
II) ENVIRONMENT PRESERVATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT;
III) CONSULTATION AND COLLABORATION WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES
IN MINING SITES IN COMPLIANCE WITH SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY AND
SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AREAS WHERE THE DIAMONDS
ARE EXPLOITED;
IV) THE TRANSITION FROM ARTISANAL MINING TO SEMI-MECHANIZED
MINING;
V) TRAINING ARTISANALS MINERS ON BASIC EVALUATION OF
DIAMONDS, GEOLOGY AND TECHNICAL MATTERS;
VI) TENTANTIVE OF THE IDENTIFYING COMMON CRITERIAS AND
CONSENSUS ON ETHICAL CODES.
Despite some accomplishment, much remains to be done to enjoy
the full implementation of the Declaration of Moscow. But the
question remain the same; with all these policies leading to a
sustainable long-term sector of small scale mining, why the delay in
the implementation of its recommendations?

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Besides other reasons, we can consider the following:
1. Lack of results-oriented actions at national and regional level;
2. Sharing roles and responsibilities;
3. Lack of success rate;
4. Lack of instruments for monitoring and verification;
5. Lack of human, financial and technical resources;
But then what are the challenges of the artisanal diamond sector?
First you must know better the artisanal diamond activity:
Artisanal mining represents a significant proportion of people in the
developing diamond producer countries. The essential characteristic
of this activity, in general within a traditional logistics, is, despite any
ancient practice and apparently organized, the lack of sophistication
that reflects the weak material and its has as consequence all
adverse effects and constraints of this activity that we know. The
solution of these problems is simple. The solution is to breakdown
the technical, financial, logistical and cultural blockades.
In the majority of alluvial artisanal diamond producing countries, at
production line are the formal and informal chain actors.
Artisanal diamond is one conducted by the holders of an
authorization issued by the Minister in charge of Mines. It is done
outside mining concessions granted to industrial and semi-industrial.
With regard to legal and regulatory provisions, the artisanal miners
working in the formal chain is defined as an individual entity,
enjoying an authorization to mine in a determined site officially
granted the Minister in charge of Mines. All the production and sales
are recorded and is required to sell all of its output to collectors or
trading houses.
The informal actors, these are the players working in parallel with
formal actors but not holding official papers, basic working outside
the officially recognized chain, there are actors whose actions
disrupt the effective and efficient regulatory statuary framework,
Numerically represented more than the formal actors. This is where
the challenge is to bring more of them in the formal chain.

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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Discussions that we had conducted in recent years related to
Diamond Alluvial Artisanal Mining deserve again a more adequate
treatment at Diamond and Development Seminar organized by the
current Presidency of the KP and the World Bank on 7 and 8 June
2012.
We hope that the exchange of experiences and presentations to be
made by experts will bring a better understand of the current reality
of artisanal mining and a better direct solutions to maximize its
strengths and minimize its weaknesses.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Africa is not the same as ten years ago, especially in the diamond
producing countries. Some of them recorded higher growth in the
world, justice is applicable there too and elections are convened in a
regular basis, despite a new element of certain press Whereas if an
opposition party wins the elections, they are regarded as transparent
and fair, and if the ruling party retains power it is declared not in
accordance with international principles.
So we expect a balanced debate on the redefinition of the term
"conflict diamond ". The notion of violence and human rights
Proposed by the coalition of Civil Society endorsed by the World
Diamond Council and World Council of Jewellery, consensus is still
far from the producers and especially those whose diamond mining
activity Coexist between industrial and artisanal.
In the industrial exploitation, social and labour conflict between
employees and employers are resolved in the regulatory and
legislative framework, where workers are represented by the union.
Yet in artisanal we must go further to find the sources of conflict in
the formal and informal chain and as I said before.
1. Conflicts of interest between the artisanal miners themselves to
have the most profitable site are practices very common among the
informal actors;
2. Conflicts of interest between artisanal miners and logistics and
financial providers, are also evident among the informal actors;

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3. Conflicts of property rights and invasion of informal and formal
actors in concessions granted or reserved for industrial and semi-
industrial producers;
4. Conflicts of interest between foreign citizens excluded from
exercising the artisanal mining activity in a country following the
regulatory framework. This causes the deportation to the country of
origin.
So the complexity of such conflicts that may be considered a
potential source of violence, that as in most similar business
agriculture, trade, land occupation and mining business which are
usually classified as domestic conflicts has been treated with basic
domestic laws.
EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT OF KP
In our work sessions, we will have the opportunity for our members
discuss in depth current topics and prepare for the seminar that we
strongly encourage everybody’s participation.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION