As USAID transforms, cross-sector programming is more important than ever, and this is especially true for environment programming. The USAID Office of Forestry and Biodiversity, and the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, have developed a new guide that explains how to use geospatial analysis throughout the program cycle to support integration of biodiversity conservation with other development sectors.
Geospatial analysis is the gathering, display and analysis of data with a spatial component. These data range from satellite imagery, to global datasets on forest cover, to geographically referenced census information. In addition to its widespread use for program design, geospatial analysis is a powerful tool for bringing sectors together by visualizing and analyzing the overlaps between sectors.
This guide is intended both to support the work of geospatial specialists, and to help USAID staff make the case for geospatial analysis during integration for USAID technical offices, program offices, and front offices. Though the guide was written with biodiversity programming in mind, it has many lessons that might be broadly useful to USAID staff as they integrate their programs.
Land titles ease conflicts with neighbours – and can cut down on problems including runaway fires
Originally published on the Thomson Reuters Foundation Website. (* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.)
By: Arlindo Macuva, a Mozambique-based project coordinator for the NGO Oram.
While fires in Australia and Brazil’s Amazon have captured headlines over the last few months, half a world away and far from the media spotlight, Mozambique was similarly ablaze.
The fires, combined with agricultural expansion and development, have reduced Mozambique’s forest cover by three million hectares – about 11% – from 2001 to 2018, according to the United Nations.
But a pair of innovative land-rights programs, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), are helping to clarify what is fueling the fires and are providing guidance on how the blazes might be battled.
For years, farmer Calisto Luis Vasconcelos had a front row seat to the fires.
Six times he lost his sugar cane crop to the flames.
“In the past, it has been out of control,” said Vasconcelos. “You would just see a wall of fire coming toward you with no warning”
In Mozambique, fires are a season problem. They are the result of traditional farming practices in which farmers burn their fields to prepare them for the next planting season.
Unclear and undocumented rights to land add fuel to the fire, because when farmers have unclear and undocumented rights to their land, they tend to have conflicts with neighbors.
The World Bank estimates that 90% of rural land in Africa is undocumented, so, this is a common problem. The undocumented and unclear boundaries and the slim margin for survival for many rural families are a destructive combination.
Farmers often dispute boundaries with their neighbors with an eye toward claiming a few rows of their neighbor’s corn or cane for themselves. With poverty and hunger high, every row counts.
These persistent disagreements over boundaries tend to sour relations between neighbors, sometimes bubbling over into outright violence. In this toxic environment, when a farmer decides to burn his or her field to make way for the next season’s crops, they may not warn a neighbor of their plans or take care to ensure that the fire does not spread.
This was the case in Vasconcelos’ community. He was locked in conflict with his neighbors over his prized parcel of land – four acres of extremely fertile land down by the river. “It is a good piece of land and everyone claimed it,” said Vasconcelos. “It was mine, but everyone wanted it.”
His neighbors would try to nibble away at the edges of his field, trying to get his land by taking a few rows of corn at a time. Their constant bickering meant that, in the words of Vasconcelos, “There were no rules. Things were out of control.”
And when his neighbors burned their fields, they gave Vasconcelos no warning and took no action to contain the fires to their own fields.
This began changing when DFID and USAID funded programs to help communities clarify and document their land. Working in different villages throughout the region, USAID and DFID’s partners have been teaching villagers how to use GPS-enabled tablets and to document the boundaries of each person’s fields.
Farmers receive land certificates with maps of their property, a calculation of acreage, their name, and a list of community witnesses – providing documentation of their land use. Now, everyone in Vasconcelos’ village, Enhumua, has agreed on where their fields end and their neighbors’ begin.
Vasconcelos and his neighbors who have never had titles or deeds – often inheriting their land from their parents or buying it on a handshake – finally have the security of documentation that the land they farm is theirs.
Local government leaders Oliveira Pinto and Martin Gabriel Paiva said the land documentation programs were aimed at improving women’s empowerment, boosting nutrition, and reducing conflict. They have achieved those goals and brought another unexpected benefit, reducing the uncontrolled fires.
“Now that the issue of land is settled, we are working together more,” said Paiva.
“Now that we have recognized each other’s rights, we have changed our behavior,” said Vasconcelos. “We respect each other.“
Nine traditional chiefs have partnered with USAID and DFID over the last five years to demarcate and document the land rights of 30,000 women farmers across Zambia and Mozambique.
The documents with each woman’s name, the GPS coordinates of her field, and a stamp of approval from the local chief, are proving revolutionary.
Ruth Banda: Suya Village, Zambia
“Before, my field was getting smaller and smaller,” said Ruth Banda, mother of five who farms seven acres of land. “Why? Because people were nibbling away at it. Now it is demarcated. And the problem is resolved. I have no more fears and have planted mango, orange, and guava trees.”
Agnes Mwanza: Fuwe Village, Zambia
“I am a landholder. I am secure,” said Agnes Mwanza. “My brother-in-law didn’t respect me and he tried to push me off my land for nearly 20 years. But now I have a land document. And that he must respect.”
Eunice Zulu: Zoole Village, Zambia
“Before I had secured my rights to land,” said Eunice Zulu, a farmer and mother of nine children, “if I spoke up or disagreed with my husband’s parents or brother they would say, ‘We see you woman. You seem strong. But just wait until your husband is gone. How strong will you be then?’ But now I have documented my land. My name is on the certificate. They can’t chase me away [if my husband passes]. And I can speak my mind.”
Dorothy Zulu: Chimseu Village, Zambia
“Now I am free,” said Dorothy Zulu, a widow was able to hold onto her farm thanks to her land documents.
Tisaine Sakala: Maloemya Village, Zambia
“It feels great to be a landowner,” Sakala said. “I cannot read or write. But I know my name is recorded and I know what it means. When I first held the certificate in my hand, I felt secure, established. I know no one can take the land away from me.”
Chieftainess Mkanda: Zambia
“Everyone wants land,” said Chieftainess Mkanda, a former schoolteacher who now serves as leader of her community. “So, it became a custom to chase widows away and take their land. I have put an end to this practice. Women are entitled to land, to rights, to farm.”
This is, in many ways, a heartbreaking report. Overall, the data suggest that community land documentation and legal empowerment initiatives are, on their own, not sufficient to balance the significant power and information asymmetries inherent in interactions between rural communities and government officials, coming on their own behalf or accompanying potential investors.
Yet, by showcasing the rampant injustices faced by the study communities, this report aims to shed light on how best to address such imbalances of power and strengthen global efforts to protect community land rights. With renewed focus, incisive action, and considerably more legal support, it may be possible to shift the power dynamics inherent in community interactions with outside actors and ensure that communities remain on their lands, growing and prospering with or without external investment, according to their own self-defined goals and future vision.
From 2009 until 2015, Namati partnered with the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU), the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) in Liberia, and Centro Terra Viva (CTV) in Mozambique to undertake community land protection work in more than 100 communities. In late 2017, after six years had passed since the first group of communities had completed the community land protection process and at least two years had passed since the last group of communities had finished documenting their lands, Namati evaluated the impacts of its community land protection approach on communities’ response to outside actors seeking community lands and natural resources.
This study, undertaken from December 2017 until February 2018, aimed to understand whether and how community land protection efforts affect communities’ tenure security. The central assumption tested was: “Once communities know their land rights and have documented their land claims, they will act in an empowered way when approached by government officials and/or investors seeking land, and will have improved tenure security outcomes.” Specifically, the questions explored included:
Are communities that have completed the community land protection process able to respond to external threats to their land rights in an empowered manner that promotes their tenure security, dignity, wellbeing and prosperity?
Does formal documentation of community lands lead to greater tenure security? Alternatively, even in the absence of a formal title, deed, or certificate, does completion of Namati’s community land protection approach – which leaves a community with a map of its lands, formally adopted rules for local land and natural resource governance, MOUs of boundary agreements with neighboring communities, among other documents – lead to stronger tenure security?
During the study, researchers called the leaders and community-based animators/mobilizers of 61 communities in Liberia, Uganda and Mozambique who had completed their community land protection efforts between 2009 and 2015 and asked if they had been approached by external actors seeking to claim or use their lands in the years since they completed the community land protection work. Researchers called 22 communities in Uganda, 25 communities in Mozambique, and 14 communities in Liberia. Of the 61 communities who were reached by phone, 28 (46%) reported that they had been approached by external actors seeking land and natural resources, while 33 (54%) reported that they had not.
When the researchers went to the field and held meetings to collect these communities’ stories, the 28 communities told stories of their 35 interactions with outside actors seeking land. Eight of these stories came from Liberia, twelve came from Mozambique, and fifteen stories came from Uganda. Of these:
12 stories involved government officials seeking community lands for government projects;
14 stories involved international investors seeking community lands and natural resources for tourism, agribusiness, mining and logging ventures; and
9 stories involved national, regional or local-level elites/investors seeking community lands and natural resources for investment purposes.
USAID’s Urban Team is pleased to announce the launch of the new and improved UrbanLinks website. As USAID’s central hub for information about urban topics and programs, UrbanLinks provides valuable tools, resources, and insights from across the Agency and from our partners.
Cross-Sector Resources
Rapid urbanization touches upon practically all important development issues – enabling economic growth, strengthening democratic governance, protecting the environment, and fostering self-reliance. UrbanLinks brings together information on the connections between urban trends and issues and other key development sectors, such as democracy and governance, energy and environment, and women’s economic empowerment.
UrbanLinks is also the hub for the Agency’s growing portfolio of work on ocean plastics. Why? Most of the plastic waste flowing into the ocean comes from cities in the developing world that lack the systems, infrastructure, and governance to effectively manage their waste. USAID is taking a local systems approach to strengthening waste management and recycling systems in the cities that contribute the most to this global program. Learn more at www.urban-links.org/ocean-plastic.
Join the UrbanLinks CommunityUSAID Missions and implementing partners are invited to submit your urban success stories, evaluations, insights, and project reports to be published on the site. Please email submissions to urbancomms@trg-inc.com.
UrbanLinks offers two separate newsletters to help you stay up to date with topics of interest:
A newsletter on urban trends and cross-sectoral issues.
A newsletter on our growing portfolio on ocean plastic pollution.
To receive the latest news and updates on USAID’s work in the urban sector and on ocean plastics, please sign up or update your subscription to our monthly newsletters.
Questions or Comments
For general questions about USAID Urban, please contact urban@usaid.gov. For questions about USAID’s ocean plastics work, please contact oceanplastics@usaid.gov.
USAID is pleased to announce the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) Special Call for applications to support graduate students and their mentors interested in building their capacity for research on land and resource governance. One-year awards of up to $15,000 per research team (mentor and one or more graduate students and/or postdocs) are available. Applicants must be based in Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania, or Zambia. All applications submitted in response to this call MUST incorporate previously-generated USAID impact evaluation data available on USAID Land and Urban’s LandLinksor by contacting USAID LU’s LandLinks website or email data@land-links.org.
The application deadline is April 17, 2020, and applicants will be notified of the outcome of their applications on or around May 1. For examples of research topics, details on the application and review process, and application form, visit the PEER webpage.
The international development community mourns the loss of Chief Nyamphande IV, a traditional chief of the Nsenga Tribe of Zambia, who passed away suddenly on January 17, 2020. Chief Nyamphande was a celebrated land champion known for promoting women’s land rights and access to land for all people across Zambia. An important USAID partner, Chief Nyamphande contributed to numerous national development efforts over the course of his career, and his leadership offered a model of good governance for customary land.
First meeting of USAID land tenure programs with Chief Nyamphande in one of his fields in December 2014. Photo: James Murombedzi
“Chief Nyamphande was the first traditional leader USAID encountered when designing its support to customary land rights. He always acted as an ambassador for good governance with a focus on ‘how does any partnership improve the livelihoods of the people within his chiefdom,”USAID ILRG Chief of Party Matt Sommerville remarked on the chief’s legacy. He continued, “Chief Nyamphande provided a vision for using participatorily developed maps to secure the rights of his people, particularly women, as well as to negotiate positive outcomes with government in areas of water and sanitation, wildlife management and agricultural productivity. His passing is a deep loss for Zambia, though it is heartening to see many following in his footsteps.
Once an accountant, Chief Nyamphande was called to leave city life behind and return to serve his people of the Nsenga Tribe in Zambia’s Petauke District. Over the course of his years as chief, Nyamphande was devastated by the extent of land-related issues plaguing his community. Each week he witnessed widows being chased from their farms by extended family, neighbors fighting over boundaries and resources, and widespread deforestation of his people’s once densely forested land. Chief Nyamphande lamented these challenges in a 2019 interview:
“Women were the most disadvantaged,” Nyamphande said. “Brothers displaced widows and women were like an appendage to their husbands. They didn’t have rights. Brother fought with brother, and neighbor with neighbor. We had hundreds of disputes every year. If it wasn’t about ownership, it was about boundaries. There were assaults and even killings. Our community’s forests were a free-for-all. We didn’t know who was coming in and cutting our trees by the truckload.
Through his involvement with the USAID Tenure and Global Climate Change Program in 2014, he helped dramatically reduce the number of people affected by these issues, and supported his people to better-manage their land for a more sustainable future.
“Land is scarce,” Nyamphande said in 2019. “We’ve realized that we need to manage land better. This [USAID] program allows us to do that. We are setting aside a conservation area where no one will farm. We are protecting the natural environment by making rules about who can cut trees, who cannot cut. And, most importantly, when you cut a tree, you must plant a tree.
In 2018 Nyamphande continued his work by partnering with the USAID Integrated Land and Resource Governance Program (ILRG), supporting his and other communities to document their land tenure under the authority of village headpersons and chiefs. Through this work, male and female farmers in his community were provided physical, laminated, signed documentation of their land rights; a level of land security most farmers had never experienced. Before ILRG, few of Chief Nyamphande’s people had any documentation of their land at all.
“Anyone could make any claim,” Chief Nyamphande said in 2019. “It was an open field. People would come out of nowhere and say: ‘my grandfather loaned this land to your grandfather and now I am taking the land back’. We didn’t know if it was true or untrue. There was no documentation of anything.
In past rainy seasons, which last from October through March, mediation and conflict resolution between farmers and neighbors consumed Chief Nyamphande’s life. As the farmers were working their fields, Chief Nyamphande was working to keep the peace, resolve disputes, and help his community manage resources. Land documentation drastically reduced the need for mediation and the amount of time Chief Nyamphande spent settling disputes. Before his death Nyamphande heard community disputes on Mondays and Fridays, often referring both parties back to their land certificates to settle the conflict.
“Land tenure was our missing link,” the Chief said. “We had disputes and serious violence. But now, with GPS technology we have precisely measured our land. And we suddenly have order.
USAID and the government of Zambia look forward to continuing Nyamphande’s strong legacy of charting a prosperous and sustainable future for his people. Working closely with the new Acting Chief, the program will continue pushing land rights forward with the people of Zambia.
In 2019 LandLinks had its most successful year yet, including more than 219,000 page views across the site. Check out the top five most popular blogs, pages, and resources below.
One of the top pages in 2019 was this case study series highlighting USAID’s private sector engagement with The Hershey Company/ECOM Agroindustrial Trading in Ghana, Illovo Sugar Africa Ltd. in Mozambique, and the Moringa Partnership in Kenya. The case studies demonstrate that respecting and bolstering local land rights can be good for businesses and local communities. Click to learn more about the innovative partnerships and their impact.
A blog that drew the attention of many LandLinks visitors was “Increasing Land Rights through Property Ownership in Kosovo.” In Kosovo, the cultural traditions of informality and patriarchy have created multiple challenges for women’s property rights. USAID provided mentoring for judges and training for legal associates to take over more tasks related to processing cases. As a result, the time for the initial preparation of a case before the first court hearing decreased by 72 percent, from 1,058 to 297 days. Read another related blog, “Increasing women’s property ownership,” to learn about the impact of the USAID Property Rights Program.
USAID’s Mobile Applications to Secure Tenure (MAST) Learning Platform was the third most popular page in 2019. The learning platform brings together tools, resources, and data from across MAST programs in a growing list of countries, including Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Liberia, and Zambia. MAST is a collaborative, participatory approach that builds sustainable local capacity to efficiently map resource rights and secure land tenure. The approach is inclusive and promotes participation and leadership of women and other marginalized groups in project activities. Check out Asiah Samila’s story from Tanzania about how documented property rights gave her financial stability. Click to learn more about the MAST approach, its field implementation, and technology.
One of the most popular resources on LandLinks was the Country Profiles page. Here you can find in-depth information on land, resource governance, and property rights issues for 69 countries around the world. Check out our most recent additions to the country profile library: India and Madagascar. Click to explore your country of interest.
One of the most popular blogs of 2019 was about USAID Administrator Green’s trip to Colombia where he and Colombia President Iván Duque signed a joint statement of support for the Massive Land Formalization Pilot, which is nearing completion in the municipality of Ovejas, Sucre. Watch the video to learn more about USAID’s work supporting land rights in Colombia.
The Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) Asia Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy (EDGE) Ag-Energy Prize seeks business owners and entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia with game-changing innovations operating at the nexus of renewable energy, and agriculture.
The winners of the Prize will receive $100,000 for the mid-stage category and $75,000 for the youth category in funding in addition to opportunities to engage with investors, mentors, and acceleration services.
The WE4F Asia EDGE Ag-Energy Prize is a partnership among the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Prize includes a $355,000 cash prize purse for winners and runners-up, travel sponsorship to participate in the Clean Asia Energy Forum in Manila, the Philippines in June 2020, and customized acceleration services from the WE4F Asia Regional Hub.
In addition, 10 mid-stage and 5 youth innovator prize finalists will benefit from recognition on the WE4F website, communications materials, and travel support to participate in a co-creation workshop in Bangkok, Thailand in March 2020 to discuss challenges and opportunities in the renewable energy and agriculture nexus in Southeast Asia.
On December 5, 2019, the Senate Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women’s Issues held a hearing on Illicit Mining: Threats to U.S. National Security and International Human Rights. USAID’s Jeff Haeni, Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3), testified on USAID’s efforts to address illicit mining. The full transcript of his written testimony and a video recording of the hearing are presented below.
Chairman Rubio, Ranking Member Cardin, Distinguished Members of this Sub-Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to testify about the important role the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) plays in addressing illegal and unregulated mining. It is an honor to be here with you today.
USAID is committed to working with governments, civil society, communities, and the private sector to reduce the impact of conflict; counteract the drivers of violence, instability, and transnational crime; address corruption; advance prosperity; protect human rights; improve human health; and prevent the loss of biodiversity. For all of these reasons, USAID is deeply concerned about illegal and unregulated mining. There is little doubt that illegal and unregulated mining, particularly artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), undermines U.S. interests around the globe, contributes to armed conflict and instability, provides funding to criminal networks, threatens our shared environment, and menaces indigenous people.
The linkages between mineral wealth and development are complex and dynamic. Despite the potential for a country’s mineral wealth to translate into prosperity and social development, we see far more examples in which discovery and exploitation of mineral wealth undermines development gains. Whether a country harnesses its mineral wealth for inclusive economic growth, or its mineral wealth leads to a downward spiral of corruption and violent conflict depends largely on a supportive policy framework and its enforcement, combined with citizen responsive governance, including transparency and accountability.
In many countries in which USAID works, governments, illegitimate regimes, and powerful nonstate actors, including companies, elites, and criminal groups, use intimidation, violence, and corruption to acquire wealth and control over the minerals sector. In these cases, economic benefits concentrate within a small percentage of the population, while many more people bear the negative environmental, social, and economic impacts.
Within the minerals sector, ASM is uniquely vulnerable to exploitation by corrupt officials, elites and criminal groups. At least 40 million people in developing countries – most of them poor – work in the ASM sector, most of which is informal in nature. Women and children are especially vulnerable to labor and sexual exploitation on illegal mining sites, particularly in conflict or post conflict environments. Powerful actors who face little or no accountability for predatory behavior easily undermine local regulatory structures.
Mining in violation of the laws of the nation in which the activity occurs often takes place in remote areas that are difficult to police. In Latin America, illegal and unregulated ASGM generates billions of dollars in illicit revenue for transnational criminal organizations, some of which have close ties to high-ranking officials in government and state security forces. In 2016, the total value of illicit gold production in South America was estimated as at least $7 billion, and by all accounts is increasing. In Venezuela, the former Maduro regime has increasingly turned towards illegal and unregulated gold mining to line its pockets and maintain its power, in cooperation with transnational groups.
In Africa, artisanal diamond, gold, coltan, and tungsten mining has helped finance prolonged and deadly conflicts in countries such as Angola, Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In CAR and DRC, minerals have become synonymous with “conflict,” which has resulted in temporary restrictions on their export. In the Sahel, armed groups are increasingly seizing control of ASGM sites in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger which could further destabilize the region. As in Latin America, high-ranking officials in government and state security forces often profit personally from these operations. Throughout much of Africa, illegal and unregulated ASM supply chains have links to criminal networks and contribute to domestic and regional insecurity.
ASM often occurs in and around protected areas of high biodiversity, which hampers efforts to protect critical ecosystems. Indigenous people and other vulnerable groups inhabit some of these areas. Artisanal and small‐scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest source of mercury pollution on Earth as at least 10 million people use mercury to mine for gold in more than 70 countries – with severe effects on human health. Much of the mercury released goes into the atmosphere and travels thousands of miles. It is estimated that 70% of the mercury deposited in the United States comes from global sources. Alluvial gold mining – the extraction of gold from creeks, rivers and streams – has deforested over 62,500 hectares in the Amazon’s uniquely biodiverse Madre de Dios region since 1999.
Unfortunately, we have no easy or quick solutions. Illegal and unregulated ASM mining is a complex problem that requires long-term investments and structural reforms. USAID aims to support our partners that show the resolve to address the pervasive problems that surround this sector. Over the last five years, USAID has awarded programs with an anticipated total value of $125 million to address illegal and unregulated ASM in countries such as Afghanistan, CAR, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Perú, and Rwanda. Our programs include rigorous, field level monitoring, evaluation, and oversight which has generated the data needed to demonstrate impact and to ensure our programs constantly learn and adapt. On a recent trip to Colombia, USAID Administrator Mark Green commented that he was “shocked to see the remnants of the illegal mining and the devastating consequences for the environment,” but he was also heartened to witness first-hand the impact of USAID’s programs that have helped support environmentally and socially responsible licit supply-chains that “bring money revenues into legal channels in a way that helps to support families and provides new revenues for the government.”
Evidence suggests that formalization and legalization of the sector is one effective step to break the link between the trade of artisanal minerals and armed conflicts. USAID has learned through experience that addressing illegal and unregulated mining requires a coordinated, whole-of-government approach and long-term investments. We cannot solve this problem through development assistance alone. At USAID headquarters and in our Missions in the countries in which we work, our decision to engage in the artisanal mining sector occurs on the ground as part of a comprehensive and cross-sectoral Country Development and Cooperation Strategy. We make our investments in efforts to formalize and improve the ASM sector in partnership with national and local governments, civil society, and the private sector, almost always coupled with closely coordinated interventions from other U.S. Government Departments and Agencies.
In Latin America, USAID’s programs in Perú and Colombia directly support bilateral Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) between the United States and the aforementioned governments to counter illegal mining and related crimes. In Perú, USAID has built up the country’s scientific and research capacity by establishing the first laboratory in Madre de Dios with the capacity to analyze environmental mercury contamination and supporting the publication of over 25 papers on remediation and management techniques. USAID recently launched a new five-year, $23.9 million program in Perú to strengthen environmental criminal justice institutions; reduce environmental crimes in key landscapes in and around protected areas and indigenous land; and support civil society and the media to serve as effective watchdogs. In Colombia, USAID funded programs promote legal and responsible mineral supply-chains in Antioquia and Chocó. Our programs have helped formalize 42 mining operations, eliminated nearly 40 tons of mercury from mining production, and assisted in generating $110 million dollars of legal gold sales, which mobilized $8 million of domestic resources in the form of royalties and taxes. In addition, USAID rehabilitated 17,000 hectares of land affected by mining.
In Africa, USAID works closely with other U.S. Government Departments and Agencies in CAR and the DRC. In CAR, USAID helps reduce the flow of conflict diamonds by improving compliance with the international due-diligence process known as the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. In 2013, CAR was temporarily suspended from the Kimberley Process because of its lack of compliance and concerns about conflict diamonds, which led to an embargo on diamonds from CAR. USAID worked closely with the government of CAR to improve compliance, which led to a partial lift on the embargo in 2015. USAID continues to support the Government of CAR to improve compliance and strengthen social cohesion in mining communities. In the DRC, USAID supports the establishment of legal, responsible mineral supply-chains for tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. In 2010, the United Nations reported that almost every mine site in Eastern DRC was under the control of armed groups. Since that time, USAID has supported the validation of more than 600 ASM sites as conflictfree. By 2017, an estimated three out of four tin, tantalum, and tungsten sites were free of the control of armed groups. In addition to the security improvements, the conflict-free supplychains have also generated a legal source of revenue. In 2018, validated conflict-free mine sites in the DRC legally exported approximately 15,800 tons of tin and tantalum worth over $285 million. This year, USAID supported the very first export of conflict-free gold to the United States from Eastern DRC through private-sector-led gold supply-chain involving only U.S. companies. Furthermore, USAID, along with the State Department and Department of Labor, established the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade (PPA), a multistakeholder initiative that promotes responsible sourcing of gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten in the DRC and the Great Lakes Region.
In Afghanistan, where extractives are the second-largest source of revenue for the Taliban after narcotics, USAID has developed interagency agreements with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) within the Department of Interior with an anticipated total value of $38.2 million. This USAID funding supports the provision of targeted legal, regulatory, and policy advice as well as the analysis of geological data and management assistance to the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum and the Afghanistan Geological Survey.
But let me be clear, just because artisanal mining is legal and regulated, does not necessarily mean that it will propel a country towards self-reliance, nor can a comprehensive solution succeed without strengthening the governance of industrial mining. This is why USAID also funds the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), a voluntary, global partnership between governments, extractive-industry companies, and civil society to promote the transparent and accountable management of oil, gas, and mineral resources. Advancing the EITI Standard serves key U.S. national-security, economic, and foreign policy objectives, including fighting corruption, empowering communities affected by mining operations, leveling the playing field for U.S. companies overseas, and promoting good governance in the extractive sector worldwide. Since 2013, USAID has obligated more than $19 million in funding through over 17 USAID Missions – including in both Colombia and Perú – for programs to support the EITI-related disclosure of data on government revenue, explorations and concessions in the extractives sector; to strengthen multi-stakeholder governance; and to promote beneficial ownership processes to enhance transparency and minimize supply-chain risks to businesses, including money-laundering and terrorist-financing.
USAID’s successes in the sector have been hard-won. Mining in violation of the laws of the nation in which the activity occurs is a complex development problem that must be addressed through carefully planned and sustained investments, a permissive operational environment, and close collaboration with other U.S. government departments and agencies. USAID will continue to participate in U.S. Government interagency efforts to combat illegal and unregulated mining of a country’s natural resources; advance the formalization and regulation of the ASM sector; strengthen mineral ASM supply-chains to render them legal, transparent, and environmentally and socially responsible; combat related crimes such as sex and labor trafficking in mining regions; clarify land and resource rights; prevent encroachment into protected areas; promote the environmental rehabilitation of degraded lands and the elimination of mercury; protect the rights of indigenous peoples and other vulnerable populations; and support increased transparency and accountability in the minerals sector.
Our interest is, and always will be, to work with governments, civil society and the private sector in countries on their Journey to Self-Reliance. Part of this Journey is the effective management of natural resources, including high-value minerals. USAID will continue to join forces with partners that are committed to improving their regulation and management of the mining sector for the economic, social, and environmental benefit of their people.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to answering your questions.
