A working draft of a Washington Declaration Diagnostic Framework (also in French) has been prepared by USAID for use by the Working Group on Artisanal and Alluvial Production (WGAAP) of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). This tool is intended to help countries assess the status of their artisanal mining sector, and implement the principles outlined in the “Washington Declaration on Integrating Development of Artisanal and Small Scale Diamond Mining with Kimberley Process Implementation.”
Edits and comments on the draft Washington Declaration Diagnostic Framework will be collected by the Kimberley Process Administrative Support Mechanism through August 1, 2013. After finalization of the document, a pilot country will be identified in which to test the Diagnostic Framework.
The Kimberley Process, which has the objective of certifying rough diamond shipments as “conflict-free,” is not a development institution. However, it encourages the adoption of a number of best practices around economic development and actions in the artisanal and small scale mining sector.
Several of the Washington Declaration’s policy goals emerged from lessons learned under USAID’s Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) program. The PRADD program, which began in Central African Republic (CAR) in 2007, has worked to clarify and strengthen the property rights of artisanal miners. The result has been better monitoring of the artisanal diamond mining sector and improved livelihoods in artisanal mining communities. In CAR, legal diamond production in PRADD’s longstanding areas of intervention has increased 450% since 2010, compared to 21% for the rest of the country.
USAID recently announced that the PRADD program will be continued and expanded to Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea under a new successor program, PRADD II.