• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Navigating the Poles
    • New Security Broadcast
    • Reading Radar
  • Multimedia
    • Water Stories (Podcast Series)
    • Backdraft (Podcast Series)
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Animated Short)
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • New Security Broadcast

    Community-centered Approaches to Green Mineral Mining: A Conversation With Pact’s Roger-Mark De Souza

    November 3, 2022 By Claire Doyle

    Pact Podcast Thumbnail

    According to the World Bank, building enough renewable energy infrastructure to keep global warming below 2C will require more than 3 billion tons of minerals. Reducing emissions quickly is crucial to minimizing risk for the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities, many of whom are on the front lines of a crisis they did not create. But unless we are careful, ramping up mining in order to decarbonize could actually worsen inequity and injustice. “How do we do this quickly, safely, and sustainably, in ways that benefit all?” asks Lauren Risi, Director of the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program in this week’s New Security Broadcast.

    According to the World Bank, building enough renewable energy infrastructure to keep global warming below 2C will require more than 3 billion tons of minerals. Reducing emissions quickly is crucial to minimizing risk for the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities, many of whom are on the front lines of a crisis they did not create. But unless we are careful, ramping up mining in order to decarbonize could actually worsen inequity and injustice. “How do we do this quickly, safely, and sustainably, in ways that benefit all?” asks Lauren Risi, Director of the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program in this week’s New Security Broadcast.

    Risi explores this question with Roger-Mark De Souza, a Global Fellow with the Wilson Center and Vice President of Sustainable Markets at Pact, an international development organization with decades of experience improving health, governance, sustainable markets, and local stakeholder engagement in mining activities. What Pact is most known for, says De Souza, is how it engages communities: “[It’s] very much a co-creation process in partnership with and led [by] communities.”

    Pact’s broad portfolio includes work on gold in Ghana, mica in Madagascar, cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and gemstones in Tanzania and Kenya. In the Great Lakes region of Africa, the organization has spent over a decade improving mining activities for the 3T minerals (tin, tantalum, and tungsten) through a program called ITSCI. De Souza explains that the project, which is implemented in partnership with the International Tin Association, “[looks] at the supply chain [of] the three T’s with a focus on social protections, traceability, and due diligence.” According to De Souza, ITSCI is the only program that fully adheres to the OECD’s guidelines for due diligence.

    Across the world, Pact also works closely with artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operators—which de Souza calls “the hidden labor force of the mining sector.” Distinct from the more formalized, and more mechanized industrial mining sector, ASM accounts for a vast majority—as much as 90 percent—of the mining workforce worldwide. Artisanal and small-scale mining can bring significant economic benefits both for local populations and for global markets. “[ASM] is a tremendous source of livelihoods and income for communities,” says De Souza, “and [it] is critical to supply chains.”

    But ASM, and mining more broadly, can also be accompanied by serious human rights risks. “There’s a tension [when] mining is the foundation of communities’ livelihoods,” observes Risi, because mining often simultaneously introduces child labor, hazardous working conditions, and environmental degradation—all of which undermine local livelihoods, health, and sustainability.  

    Pact’s programming seeks to respond to some of these challenges. Under its ‘alternative livelihoods’ program, for instance, Pact helps children exit mining and then supports them in developing sustainable livelihood strategies post-graduation. The program has had major success in certain places: “In some mining sites, we’re able to get more than 90 percent of the children out of these mines,” De Souza shares.  

    Despite the challenges of ASM, its importance to local livelihoods and global supply chains means it merits attention in policy solutions. To that end, the World Bank, Pact, and other partners have developed a data hub called DELVE, which seeks to collate robust information about ASM and ultimately inform better decision-making. As a multipurpose tool, it serves a wide audience including communities, the mining sector, policymakers, and NGOs.

    As the demand for critical minerals continues to rise, De Souza says improving transparency across ASM and industrial mining should be a priority. “[It’s important to] have in place systems for better tracking, traceability, due diligence, tracking on conflict minerals.” For companies, looking at the risks in their supply chain is not just a moral imperative, he says. “It’s also good business sense.” Encouragingly, corporate boards of directors and shareholders are increasingly asking for this information.

    Beyond transparent supply chains, De Souza emphasized the need to formalize the ASM sector and strengthen gender equity in mining, where discrimination—like taboos associated with menstruation—can limit women’s opportunities. Underlying these ways forward is the more fundamental philosophy that community voices and needs must be centered. In that vein, De Souza says Pact will continue to operate by its guiding principle: “Putting communities and their wellbeing first.”

    New Security Broadcast is also available for download on iTunes and Google Podcasts.

    Sources: Delve, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pact, The World Bank

    Photo Credit: Gold panning in Bolaneh, Sierra Leone, used with permission courtesy of Jorden de Haan/Pact. 

    Topics: community-based, energy, featured, minerals, natural resources, New Security Broadcast, podcast

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets by NewSecurityBeat

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

Featured Media

Backdraft Podcast

play Backdraft
Podcasts

More »

What You're Saying

  • Rainforest destruction. Gold mining place in Guyana China’s Growing Environmental Footprint in the Caribbean
    ZingaZingaZingazoomzoom: US cleans up. China runs wild on free rein- A lack of international compliance mechanisms to hold...
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous souhaitons que le partenaire nous apporte son soutien technique et financier.
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous sommes une organisation féminine dénommée: Actions Communautaires pour le Développement de...

Related Stories

  • shutterstock_293087096_2Preventing a “Green Resource Curse”: Opportunities and Risks of Mining in the Global Energy Transition
  • Screen Shot 2022-07-20 at 2.25.03 PMThe Promise of Transatlantic Partnerships in the Critical Mineral Supply Chain
  • Untitled designProtecting Human Rights in DRC Cobalt Mines: A U.S. Priority in a Green Transition
  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2023. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000