RAPAPORT... The issue of small-scale miners remains an important topic in the press -- as evidence of The New York Times' front-page story on Sierra Leone (available to Rapaport News subscribers for 30 days) from March 25, 2007. Consumers continue to ask jewelers about these issues, especially those young consumers who have grown used to asking: "Did you source your products responsibly?"
 
In a joint statement by the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices and Jewelers of America on March 29, the groups marked the debut of The Madison Dialogue website to foster open communication and collaboration between the jewelry industry, NGOs, and interested parties.
 
Participants in Madison Dialogue are working on a number of initiatives to promote sustainable development, best practice, and certification or assurance in the diamond pipeline. These include the Kimberly Process, the Diamond Development Initiative, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) and efforts to certify fair-trade gold, diamonds and other minerals.

The Madison Dialogue (http://www.madisondialogue.org/) published a white paper on the Diamond Development Initiative, which goes beyond the Kimberley Process to benefit artisanal diamond miners and their communities the group announced. The first white paper was entitled "A Different Kind of Diamond Mining," and written by Ian Smillie of Partnership Africa Canada.

The Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) Smillie wrote seeks to break new ground in an effort to improve the lives of artisanal (small-scale) diamond miners, by going beyond the Kimberley Process to address economic development. DDI pursues policy solutions and real on-the-ground advances, which ensure miners and their communities reap a fair share of the economic benefits generated by the diamonds they extract.

The DDI is also unique in that it seeks to bring together different stakeholders from government, industry and civil society from the outset. Participants in the DDI include Partnership Africa Canada, the Foundation for Environmental Sustainability and Security, De Beers, the Rapaport Group, the International Diamond Manufacturers Association, and the Communities and Small-Scale Mining Secretariat of the World Bank.

"The movie 'Blood Diamond' told an effective story of the 1991-2002 conflict in Sierra Leone and the human rights abuses fueled by the trade in diamonds there," said Smillie. "The Kimberley Process played an important role in addressing these kinds of conflicts. But Kimberley is only half the solution to preventing future conflicts over diamonds. The other half is what DDI addresses: Making a concerted effort to ensure that diamond mining and cutting provide economic benefit to the miners and mining communities."

The DDI is designed to be a proactive development tool that hopes to lift artisanal diamond miners from the ranks of Africa's poorest citizens. Its activities include:

• Uncovering "who exactly earns what" as diamonds make their way from the miner to the consumer.
• Educating artisanal miners on diamond valuation and pricing and helping to build more transparent markets with better prices.
• Creating "best practice" guidelines for working with artisanal miners.