On Wednesday, June 29, 2022, the PPA hosted a virtual Data for Impact Symposium to profile tools, models, and other approaches that can inform and enhance future action for improved socioeconomic outcomes and local benefits. Six speakers shared the latest findings on corporate conflict minerals disclosures, mechanisms for due diligence data collection and management, innovative financial access models for artisanal miners, and more.
Additional information can be found on the event program (EN, FR), and links to recordings and additional resources are below.
Significant progress has been made in the last decade to scale up minerals due diligence processes in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa, with initiatives such as the PPA driving forward a shared interest in improving local impacts and benefits. Investment in due diligence programs, community initiatives, and development projects has begun to support outcomes with direct links to mining as well as community-oriented impacts. However, there remains an apparent data gap in understanding either comparative or cumulative impacts of these interventions and the benefits sought by both local communities and international stakeholders, hindering informed decision-making and action for future investments.
The inaugural PPA Data for Impact Symposium profiled 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.
The Symposium featured a keynote address followed by five presentations and ensuing breakout sessions to facilitate interactive discussion with participants about how each tool or methodology could be applied and scaled to support data collection, increase understanding of socioeconomic impacts, and support more informed design of due diligence or other interventions to improve socioeconomic impacts in mining regions.
Difference-in-Differences Analysis (Keynote): Omri Even-Tov; University of California, Berkeley
Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires Securities and Exchange Commission issuers to perform supply chain due diligence and prepare conflict minerals disclosures indicating whether their products contain tin, tungsten, tantalum, or gold sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or its nine neighboring countries. A recent research paper examines this regulation’s impact on firms’ sourcing behaviors and whether this change in practice mitigates conflicts in the Great Lakes Region.
Datastake: Benjamin Clair, BetterChain
Datastake is an incentivized data management platform connecting information holders in countries of mineral origin with international buyers, investors, and partners. It implements the Consolidated Automated Due Diligence (CADD) framework to eliminate upstream compliance costs, facilitates locally-led monitoring of development interventions against the UN SDGs, and is used by banks to onboard ASM actors through triangulated KYC/AML checks.
The Crowdsourcing App for Responsible Production in Africa (CARPA): Robert Masua Bwana and Michelle Westermann-Behaylo, University of Amsterdam
CARPA is a platform developed to allow users to report and engage with tech-based initiatives aiming to promote due diligence and responsible production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Designed as an open platform based on crowd-sourcing principles, CARPA aims to give all participants equal visibility when attempting to address incidents that may occur due to business activity as well as allow for the promotion of initiatives that are intended to improve the lives of affected stakeholders in Africa.
Implementation and Evaluation of Conditional Microcredit for Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners: Jihae Hong, Project on Resources and Governance
This two-pronged approach proposes 1) a microcredit scheme that can be accessed by miners who meet conditions related to formalization and/or regulatory compliance, and 2) a measurement tool to evaluate the conditional microcredit scheme, including data collection instruments and a random, control trial.
Bloom by IMPACT: Joanne Lebert and Gerard van der Berg, IMPACT
Bloom by IMPACT is an impact monitoring system which allows stakeholders to have evidence supply chains are free from risks and report on progress against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance targets. This monitoring and evaluation tool empowers users to understand how their supply chain affects communities. With BLOOM, users can learn how they are positively contributing to local benefits, identify opportunities for improved practices, and leverage data to seed change.
Using Remote Sensing to Map Artisanal Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa: Tamma Carleton, MOSAIKS
Remote sensing utilizes a new computational infrastructure that dramatically lowers the computational cost and, thus, allows users to expand the prediction and mapping of ASM activities across various mineral types and terrains in sub-Saharan Africa. These predictions can inform regulators and watchdog groups that monitor the extent of ASM activity and track its impacts.
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