By Saio Marrah
As a way of implementing the Kimberley Process (KP) in the Mano River Union (MRU) to combat the smuggling of minerals and enhancing the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM) development and livelihood aspect of artisanal mining, MRU has embarked on data collection and statistics management training of mining and revenue technical staffs in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The two-day training conducted in Freetown from Wednesday 22nd to Thursday 23rd September 2021, was conducted virtually with the two country participants in their home countries. The project is funded by the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with technical support from the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) to the MRU; the implementing partner.
Speaking on behalf of the MRU Secretary-General, Dr. Abubakarr Tarawalie, noted that as the region is blessed with natural resources, there is a need for the right context, the right procedures, and proper enforcement. He said giving the fact that compliance with the KP and other international standard is essential for countries within the sub-region to produce and export diamond.
He also pointed out that the MRU’s approach has been recognised by the UN as the best practice and that the KP has made it possible to control diamond from extraction to export point. He said this has prevented what he called “conflict diamond” in participating countries, especially in the ASM whose control and management has remained a challenge.
”This training as we are all aware is undertaken to address challenges, ensuring proper data collection, being able to present reliable statistics that meet the Kimberley process minimum requirement,” he said.
The participants were taken through the type of data to be collected in the artisanal mining sector, which includes demographic data, technical data or geological and geographical, which include cadastral data (titles, permits, mining contracts), the number of active and inactive sites, quality of the minerals extracted, the number of minerals exploited and marketed.
The project according to officials supported four fields which include strengthening the capacities of the national government to implement the KP, better regulate artisanal mining, and capture in line with the Africa Mining Vision (AVM) and MRU regional agreed upon interventions and policies within the four MRU countries.
It also aimed at increasing the capacity of the MRU secretariat and other relevant national and regional bodies to combat smuggling, reduce illicit economies and improve conditions for mining communities involved in artisanal mining.
Networks with platforms comprising all key stakeholders and create better conditions for artisanal mining within the MRU. Improved reporting systems on diamond and gold exports are developed, through the use of enhanced data collection and utilization of statistics to strengthen traceability and license administration.
The participating institutions from Sierra Leone were National Mineral Agency (NMA), and National Revenue Authority (NRA). The Liberian participating institutions were the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MMR) and Liberia Revenue Authority.
Participants from both countries highlight the data collection challenges in their various mining communities and also provided possible solutions to them.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (24/09/21)
