Client: USAID
Collaboration: Tetra Tech ARD
USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realise their potential.
Working with Tetra Tech ARD, Levin Sources supported USAID’s Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) project. The project was begun by conducting a feasibility study on the nurturing of more direct trading relations of rough diamonds from Liberia and Central African Republic (CAR) to the US market. The aim was to consider how to increase the numbers of diamonds into the formal chain of custody through the reconfiguration of incentive structures for artisanal miners. This work fell under the strategic direction of the US government’s work on the Kimberley Process.
Levin Sources reviewed legal codes and relevant literature and interviewed jewellers and diamond manufacturers to gauge their interest in and the feasibility of their sourcing more directly from artisanal and small-scale producers in CAR and Liberia. The team assessed factors to setting up successful trading relations between artisanal producers and international buyers and developed scenarios for creating more direct trading relations that are both developmental and commercially feasible. Levin Sources resented its findings to the participants and helped design and facilitate a multi-stakeholder workshop at the US Department of State in Washington D.C.
As of a result of this work, jewellers and manufacturers travelled to CAR to explore the direct marketing opportunities and create trade linkages with artisanal and small-scale producers.
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