On June 14 2019, we organized a workshop on the OECD’s Due Diligence Guide in Popayan, Cauca, Colombia, with the aim of helping the department’s public entities, as well as the mining organizations that take part in the extraction of gold to become familiar with the concept of Due Diligence. This activity allowed us to share with the participants the reasons, objectives and recommendations offered by the Guide, as well as to analyze in detail the steps needed for the implementation of this Human Rights’ risk-management process.

With the aim of helping different actors, directly or indirectly involved in mining activities, to improve their risk-management practices in the mining sector, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), with the support of the Mining Component of the Economic Development and Competitiveness Secretary of the Cauca Governance, organized the workshop on the premises of the Convention Center Casa de la Moneda in Popayan, Cauca, Colombia, which was attended by artisanal and small-scale miners associations of the department and various representatives of other Cauca municipalities.

The opening saw Christophe Hanne, expert of the Alliance for Responsible Mining’s CRAFT Standard, explaining the international context that prompted the creation of the Guide and the specific characteristics to keep into account in Colombia, before moving on to exposing the key concepts associated with the guidelines of the guide.

Later, different participative activities took place, aimed at helping the participants to better understand how to implement the Due Diligence Guide and how to integrate it to different existing processes. In various working groups, we analyzed how to apply each of the steps suggested by the guide.

It was an enlightening activity for all participants, as the insights provided allowed to widen the perspective of all organizations, to revise some concepts and to analyze various concrete, real-life situations faced by the actors involved in the gold supply chain.

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This activity took place within the framework of the project OECD Due Diligence Guide for the development of Mineral Supply Chains in Colombia, which contributes to stability and peace. The project seeks to strengthen the adoption of good practices in the mining sector, and to implement OECD, which is a set of guidelines for the actors of the minerals supply chain (especially those involved with conflict minerals like tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) to respect human rights and avoid supporting armed conflicts.

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