Since its inception, Levin Sources has worked in Sierra Leone in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) diamond sector thanks to its network of in-country associates. The documents below provide a picture of the evolution of the sector. They were accurate at the time of publication but will not reflect the latest political, economical and social changes.
Artisanal Diamond Trading Schemes Lessons from the Peace Diamond Alliance Co-ops in Sierra Leone (2011)
As part of the ASM-PACE project, Levin Sources delivered a workshop to the Africa Biodiversity Conservation Group in Washington DC on "developing a roadmap for a supply chain of artisanal diamonds from Africa".
Levin Sources carried out the research for as part of a case study containing a situational analysis of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) of gold and diamonds in and around the Malema and Nomo areas of Sierra Leone's Gola Rainforest National Park (GRNP). The project used a scientific foundation of knowledge, participatory methods and rights-based approaches to work with miners and their communities, rather than in opposition to them, to design sustainable, win-win solutions for balancing conservation and development interests.
Artisanal Diamond Cooperatives in Sierra Leone: Success or Failure? (2008)
In 2005, USAID’s Integrated Diamond Management Programme (IDMP) in Sierra Leone experimented with a diamond mining cooperative scheme in order to formalise and rationalise the artisanal sector, and increase local beneficiation. Two American businessmen invested $55,000 and $20,000 into the scheme and recovered only $4,400 between them. Although the scheme was implemented for just one mining season, it was held up as a failure by the investors, USAID’s programme evaluators, and development professionals at-large. Despite the default assumption that ASM should be organised in cooperatives, it isn't always the optimal structure. Rather than imposing a cooperative structure, what matters is getting the right structure.
This paper gives an overview of the IDMP scheme, assesses its failures and successes, provides lessons learned, and considers whether or not cooperatives should be considered for artisanal diamond production elsewhere.
Photo by Bunting Kargbo on Unsplash
