The first of January, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) officially started a project in Burkina Faso. This one will run for three years and it is financed by the European Union (EU) It is the first large project that ARM implements in West Africa since the one financed by The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) between 2013 and 2016. In addition, the project is the first one signed from ARM Europe, hoping that, from this project, the presence of the foundation in Africa would be consolidated with a team working on the field.
The main objective of the project is to accompany, through an initially CRAFT approuch , risk mitigation, formalization and adoption of good practices from 30 pilot mine sites in the country. Another goal will be also to achieve the creation of legal supply chains with some of the artisanal and small-scale mining organizations and/or producers (ASMO/AMP) that participated in the pilots.
This project is linked to the process of inclusive intervention that ARM has implemented in Latin American countries such as Colombia or Peru. In the initial phase, ARM’s team will analyze the viability of different territories and groups of ASMO/AMP; it will identify the actors that will be involved in the project; it will create a specific intervention strategy that unites mining support and its connection to legal markets; and it will foster governance for sustainable mining. To do so in a successful way, our team in the territory will be responsible for the coordination and implementation of the project.
During January and February, the first field mission will be carried out by Yves Bertran, ARM’s Excutive Director. From the beginning of the project, and throughout this, there will be a strong work of consultation with the leaders of ARM on the methodologies implemented locally, in order to ensure the alignment of the strategy and methods with the main headquarters of the foundation in Colombia, and achieve the expected results.
