Standing
in the entrance to Kiran Hospital in Surat, India, Govindbhai Dholokia beams
with pride as he gestures toward the list of donors that made the facility
possible.
“Everyone here works with their hearts,” says Dholokia, chairman of
diamond manufacturer SRK Exports and co-founder of the hospital. “This project
represents the heart of the diamond industry.”
Until the hospital’s opening in April 2017, Surat offered
limited options for patients in need of specialized care, explains Dr. S.P. Shrivastav,
head of the hospital’s oncology unit. Today, this facility is making treatments
available to tens of thousands of people who previously didn’t have access, he
says.
And it was Surat’s diamond manufacturing sector — which accounts
for an estimated 80% to 90% of global polished production — that funded it,
contributing most of the $75 million it took to build and set up the facility.
“This really is a testament to the heart of the Surat diamond
community,” says one foreign executive considering a donation. “I don’t think
the diamond industry markets its good deeds enough.”
Push the positive
That
mandate — to highlight the positive impact the diamond industry has on its
communities — is one that former South African president Nelson Mandela urged
Russell Simmons to adopt just over a decade ago. Simmons, a celebrated music
producer who at the time was mulling a jewelry line of his own, had embarked on
a fact-finding mission to understand how diamonds could benefit the people of
southern Africa.
The industry was still defending itself from negative
perceptions about conflict diamonds, following the release of
Blood Diamond —
the 2006 film that highlighted the industry’s role in Sierra Leone’s civil war.
But having visited mining and manufacturing operations in South Africa and
Botswana, and having seen the schools, hospitals and infrastructure supporting
those communities, Simmons recognized the opportunity that lay ahead.
He answered Mandela’s call by setting up the Diamond Empowerment
Fund (DEF), with the goal of giving back to youth in the communities where the
diamond industry operates.
Changing the narrative
Now
in its 10th year, DEF has given out millions of dollars in student grants and
to organizations that facilitate access to better education, skill-building and
vocational training, the fund reports. The idea is that students should come
back and contribute to the economic development of their home countries,
explains DEF executive director Nancy Orem-Lyman.
The organization’s current beneficiaries include the
Johannesburg-based African Leadership Academy, the Botswana Top Achievers
program, and Veerayatan, a nonprofit providing educational, social and medical
services in India. In the past, it also supported the Diamond Development
Initiative (DDI) in setting up mobile schools for artisanal mining communities
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
While DEF relies on donations from companies throughout the
diamond pipeline, Orem-Lyman stresses that the organization is not only about
financial support.
“We want to change the narrative surrounding the diamond
industry,” she says. “People need to know about the good that diamonds do, and
that miners, manufacturers and jewelers are contributing to uplift those less
fortunate.”
That extends to the work jewelers are doing in their own
communities. DEF launched a “Diamonds Do Good” website, providing a platform
where companies can tell their stories about the positive impact diamonds are
having on their immediate surroundings.
It makes business sense
For
many, these projects aren’t just about doing the right thing; they’re good for
business as well, since their customers are demanding it.
“Consumers are looking for products that are made responsibly
and which provide a fair livelihood for the people who are mining and producing
these items,” Ernie Blom, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses
(WFDB), said at the Dubai Diamond Conference in October. “We must continue to
show that these are our aims as well.”
In fact, representatives from miner De Beers and retailer Signet
Jewelers pointed to consumer interest as one of the reasons for their corporate
social responsibility programs.
Such programs can include both community support and efforts to
maintain the integrity of the company’s products, according to panelists at the
conference.
Stéphane Fischler, acting president of the World Diamond Council
(WDC), said the industry had come a long way since the 2003 establishment of
the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KP), which verifies that a
country’s rough-diamond production is conflict-free. However, he went on, many
outsiders are still skeptical about the industry’s efforts to increase
transparency and meet the ethical standards consumers are seeking.
System of warranties
Fischler,
whose organization represents the diamond industry at the KP, acknowledges the
need to update the certification scheme — which is why the KP is currently
doing a review to assess whether it is fulfilling its core mission.
Part of that discussion is about broadening the scheme’s scope
beyond its narrow definition of conflict diamonds, particularly to include
violence related to diamond miners and their communities, Fischler explains in
an interview with
Rapaport Magazine. The DDI, for instance — which was
established 10 years ago under the auspices of the KP — has programs in place
to encourage responsible and violence-free mining in the artisanal sector (see
sidebar).
At the conference, Fischler called the KP “the best story we
have today” to validate the industry’s commitment to integrity, adding that a
unified effort was necessary to ensure the continued implementation of the
scheme.
Among other things, that means complying with the WDC’s system
of warranties and self-regulation standards, which require diamond suppliers
and jewelry manufacturers to pass on a warranty statement each time diamonds
change hands, assuring the next buyer that the goods have gone through the KP
system.
The WDC is also reviewing the system of warranties to explore
ways to broaden awareness and introduce a stronger element of due diligence.
Global sustainability goals
Another
organization working to bolster the integrity of the trade is the Responsible
Jewellery Council (RJC), which boasts more than 1,000 member companies that
have committed to its code of practices for diamonds, gold and platinum-group
metals. The code addresses human rights, labor rights, environmental impact,
mining practices, and product disclosure, among other issues.
Beyond the RJC, there has been an industry-wide push for
companies to align with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Special
sessions at the Dubai Diamond Conference, and at the Diamond Conference that De
Beers hosted in Gaborone during October, encouraged enterprises to use the SDGs
as a guide for their social responsibility agendas.
The diamond industry has the potential to influence and affect
all the SDGs, given its global scale and diverse operations, De
Beers explained in a report earlier this year. “The ongoing success of diamond
companies will depend on accountability across the diamond value chain
regarding contributions to sustainable development.”
‘Part of the industry’s DNA’
Central
to De Beers’ own program are its best practice principles (BPP), which help the
company determine whether its operations — and those of its clients — comply
with the best ethical business standards.
But it has other projects as well. For example, a strong focus
in 2017 has been gender equality, reports Katie Ferguson, the company’s head of
social impact.
To that end, the company has partnered with UN Women and worked
to provide opportunities for women in both its own organization and the
communities where it operates. Environmental issues are also high on the
agenda, with De Beers aiming to achieve carbon-free mining within five to 10
years.
The WFDB’s Blom laments that these efforts tend to go unnoticed.
Part of the problem, he suggests, is that these stories are not known to the
wider public.
“We just need to find a way to get this information out to
consumers,” he says.
DEF’s Orem-Lyman agrees, adding that
the large enterprises aren’t the only ones engaged in such programs.
“The
industry is predominantly made up of family-run businesses, and these are
families that give back,” she says. “People don’t know about it, but doing good
is part of the industry’s DNA.”
Image: De BeersArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - Special Supplement Ancient Beauty, Bold Future. To subscribe click here.