USAID's Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) Project

Running from December 2018 to December 2023, USAID's Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) Project was a five-year, $11.9 million program that built on previous successes achieved by donor-funded initiatives to export responsibly-produced gold to jewellery buyers in North America and Europe. Its overall goal is to establish a viable, conflict-free, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) gold supply chain originating from eastern DRC.

The project’s three primary objectives were:

1- To increase demand for and co-investment in conflict-free, traceable, responsible ASM gold from eastern DRC;

2- To increase exports of conflict-free, traceable, responsible ASM gold from eastern DRC; and

3- To improve the commercial viability of ASM gold cooperatives.

USAID's Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) Project was implemented by Global Communities in partnership with Levin Sources and in collaboration with Better Chain and RCS Global Upstream Ltd. At Levin Sources, we focused more specifically on mid- and downstream actors and working on trade facilitation.

As a consortium, we worked closely with the Congolese government and developed partnerships along the length of the supply chain with cooperatives and exporters, refiners and downstream buyers of gold, especially in the jewellery and tech sectors. We aimed to increase investment in the responsible gold supply chain with a view to making it commercially viable once the project funding has ended.

• In September 2020, we launched a refiners’ community of practice to explore practical solutions that contribute towards setting up a commercially viable and responsible supply of gold from the DRC. The CoP is structured around feedback gathered from the eight organizations that have already signed up. You can email us if you’d like to join.

• We learnt from those who have experience along the supply chain. Levin Sources carried out ongoing analysis of barriers and incentives to the responsible trade along the length of the supply chain.

• The project brought in partners from the private sector to make it commercially viable in the long term. In Spring 2021, we launched a $1 million Responsible Gold Innovation Fund (RGIF). The fund’s objective was to incentivize and facilitate private sector investment in new supply chain models for responsible gold originating from the DRC. It also aimed to pilot new approaches to scaling the export of responsible artisanal gold from the country by overcoming specific identified barriers. The fund prioritized grants that support supply chain actors in their responsible business practices, opportunities for general co-investment to promote commercial viability of project-supporting supply chains, and economic development in ASM communities.