The PPA has hit a milestone! November 15 marks a decade of developing tools and building civil society capacity to promote responsible minerals sourcing and trading through the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade.
Today marks a decade of developing tools and building civil society capacity to support responsible minerals sourcing and trading through the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade (PPA). The PPA is a multi-sector initiative between leaders in civil society, industry, and government that supports projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the surrounding Great Lakes Region of Central Africa that improve the due diligence and governance systems needed for ethical supply chains.
Launched in 2011 in partnership with the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the PPA today has 46 member organizations—spanning government, international NGOs, academic institutions, and companies across the electronic, jewelry, automotive, and aerospace sectors—and one observer. Members have contributed roughly $2.5 million in private funding in addition to $36 million in parallel funding by USAID to on-the-ground activities in the Great Lakes Region.
Over the past ten years, the PPA has leveraged the diversity of perspectives and depth of expertise within its member body to advance progress towards ethical supply chains through a multi-pronged approach. Its contributions to responsible minerals trade have taken a variety of forms, including:
The PPA is grateful for our partnerships and collaboration over the last decade and is planning for impact in the coming year and beyond. Most recently, the PPA has made an award for research artisanal and small-scale mining cooperative governance models to inform recommendations to PPA and others for policies and interventions that can promote equity within these organizations. That research will conclude in early 2022 and will be followed by a PPA Data for Impact Symposium to profile existing tools, methodologies, models, indicators, systems, and other approaches that could provide a basis for a sustainable, just framework to build data sets and analysis and inform future action for improved socioeconomic outcomes and local benefits. In addition to supporting in-region grants and coordination among other initiatives, we are looking inward and actively working to bolster shared learning and collaboration between our many members working actively in this space.
As the PPA takes stock of the positive impacts, challenges, and lessons learned that have surfaced over the past decade, we recognize PPA members for having created a unique and vital platform for promoting progress on responsible sourcing from the Great Lakes Region. The PPA has enabled members to take collective action at a greater scale than any one member could have achieved, and we look forward to exploring how a next phase can build on this network to support local organizations and convene tripartite leaders to help establish and scale-up impactful and effective minerals due diligence, governance systems, and risk mitigation to promote economically sound and ethical global supply chains.
Jen Peyser, Taylor Kennedy, Tommie-Lynne Enright
RESOLVE
November 15, 2021
Visit pparmt.org to learn more about the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade.
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