Central African Republic Supply Chain Report

In March 2012, two representatives of the US government (Timothy Fella from USAID and JJ Harder from State Department) and four representatives of the North American diamond industry (manufacturers Ronnie VanderLinden and Jeffrey Fischer, and jewelers Kevin and Genevieve Hume) undertook an exploratory mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) to determine under which conditions, and with what caveats a direct supply chain linking Central African artisanal diamond miners with North American buyers could be established. The mission was also to inform all national stakeholders including the Ministry of Mines (MM) of this prospective initiative in the most transparent way. The US Embassy and USAID-funded Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) project, operating in CAR since 2007, organized the mission with a supply chain model in view of sourcing artisanal diamonds in a sustainable and ethical manner that is fair to all parties involved.