Radio Interview
Listen to a live feature interview about conflict diamonds from TVO’s The Agenda (December 5, 2006) with Ian Smillie, Research Coordinator, Partnership Africa Canada.
Run time: 13 minutes.
in Sierra Leone
on the river bank
“We encourage support for the … multistakeholder Diamond Development Initiative (DDII), which emerged from the Kimberley Process to strengthen the developmental impacts associated with artisanal diamond mining in Africa”
Growth and Responsibility in the World Economy, G8 Summit Declaration, June 2007
Latest News, Announcements,
Studies and Reports
News, Studies & Reports
Book Review by Ian Smillie
Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future by Saleem H. Ali, Yale University Press, 2009
DDII Workshops for KP WGAAP Members: Johannesburg, South Africa, 22-24 February 2010
DDII organized a series of workshops for members of the Kimberley Process Working Group on Artisanal and Alluvial Production (KP WGAAP). Fourteen out of the fifteen current member countries were present, as well as six guest observers. The WGAAP aims to promote more effective internal controls on the production and trade of alluvial diamonds. Over 10 million diamantaires, miners and diggers, including their families, are precisely in this sector of the diamond industry.
Workshop Presentations
- Guyana’s Diamond Tracking System, by Shawn Blore
- Guyana Registration & Diamond Production Tracking, by Kampta Persaud (GGMC)
- Apresentação Novo CNCD, Brasil
- Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (CAR), by Dr. Kent Elbow (ARD Inc)
- Droits de Propriété et Développement des Diamants Artisanaux (RCA), par Dr. Kent Elbow (ARD Inc)
- Development Diamond Standards presentation to KP WGAAP Member Governments, DDII
- DRC Système d'enregistrement des creuseurs (RDC), par Baudouin Ihéta
- Consultations on the Development Diamond Standards with Artisanal diamond miners in CAR, by ARD Inc for DDII
- ARM FairTrade and Fair-minded Standard for ASM Gold, by Dr. Wilson Mutagwaba
- Customized DDII Illustrations on DDS for Consultation with Artisanal Diamond Miners
DDII Receives Grant from the UK Department for International Development
Press Release, 2 March 2010
The Diamond Development Initiative International (DDII) is very pleased to announce that the organization has been awarded a £50,000 grant from the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID).
DDII Receives 2010 JCK Industry Fund Grant
Press Release, 11 Feb 2010
The Board of Directors of the Diamond Development Initiative International (DDII) is very pleased to announce that the organization has been awarded a grant from the JCK Industry Fund.
dDiscourse - Issue 1, November 2009
The DDII is pleased to announce the launch of our periodic newsletter. It aims to bring a variety of news and views to the discussion about diamonds, the industry, artisanal miners and development.
Freedom from Want
Find Out why former US President Bill Clinton endorses this book by the Chair of DDII’s Board of Directors.
Announcements
Online Survey for the “Development Diamond Standards”
DDII has launched the consultative process for the “Development Diamond Standards”, in collaboration with the Madison Dialogue Diamond Working group (MDDWG).
Complete the online DDS Survey by 10 September 2009.
The DDII is now accepting grant applications
In accordance with our mission, DDII is interested in partnership opportunities with other organizations in the areas of development research, advocacy and policy development, and efforts that directly enhance the development prospects of artisanal diamond miners.
See our Grants Page for more information...
More than a million African artisanal diamond diggers and their families live and work in absolute poverty, outside the formal economy, in countries struggling to recover from the ravages of war.
Development Solutions for Artisanal Diamond Miners - 6 min 44 sec
The Diamond Development Initiative International (DDII) is a unique effort to address their problems, bringing NGOs, governments and the private sector together in a common effort that aims to ensure that diamonds are an engine for development. We envision “development diamonds”, as diamonds that are produced responsibly, safely, with respect of human and communities’ rights, in conflict-free zones, with beneficiation to communities and payment of fair prices to miners.
The problem of “conflict diamonds” or “blood diamonds” is now well known. Rebel groups in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Angola and elsewhere took control of alluvial diamond mining areas in the 1990s, enabling them to pursue their brutal wars for many years.
Conflict diamonds were a product of the vast alluvial diamond areas in Africa where diamonds are mined by artisans – diggers. Artisanal diamond mining is dirty work, sometimes dangerous, and the areas where this mining takes place is a breeding ground for insecurity resulting from poverty, underdevelopment and overcrowding. There are up to 120,000 diggers in Sierra Leone, 800,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and many tens of thousands in Angola, Liberia Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela and elsewhere.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed and maimed over years of conflict. The Kimberley Process, developed over the past eight years, has created a legally binding global certification system for rough diamonds. The KPCS now involves more than 75 countries and controls the movement of all rough diamonds from mine to market, throughout the world. It is a unique system that goes beyond governments, involving the private sector and civil society organizations in a system that has continued to improve since its inception in 2003.
The Kimberley Process has helped to consolidate the peace in several African countries, but it is a regulatory system; it is not a tool for development. In the rush to congratulation, there is a danger that some of those who suffered most in the diamond wars – the diggers, and their communities – will be forgotten.
The DDII is an important complement to the Kimberley Process and to its work with alluvial producer countries. We aim, through education, policy dialogue and projects working directly with artisanal diamond miners and their communities, to demonstrate that diamonds can be an asset for growth in countries where they have been at the forefront of conflict and have not reduced poverty; that they can be a catalyst for individual and national development.