Artisanal miners to entrepreneurs!
WDC
will help create conditions in which
Sub-Saharan
Africa's artisanal diamond
KP
to enable CAR to sell artisanally-mined
Expanding
the scope of the Kimberley Process to include issues related to human rights
and labor relations, as is being advocated by the World Diamond Council (WDC),
will help create conditions in which Sub-Saharan Africa's artisanal diamond
miners can meet their economic potential, and so support the development of
their countries' economies, Marie-Chantal Kaninda, Executive Director of WDC,
has told the 6th Forum of the Africa-Belgium Business Week, meeting yesterday
in the Belgian town of Genval.
Ms.
Kaninda was delivering the opening address in her capacity as Honorary
President of the forum, which is organized by Africa Rise, a Belgian
organization that promotes Africa's economic and social emergence through
contacts between its entrepreneurs and their counterparts from other parts the
world. The guests of honor at the forum were Faustin Archange Touadera,
President of the Central African Republic (CAR), and Charles Michel, the
Belgian Prime Minister.
Referencing
the peace agreement signed in February by the CAR government and 14 rebel
groups, aimed at ending the country's seven year-long civil war, Ms. Kaninda
expressed the WDC's optimism that the end of the conflict will precipitate
better prospects for the African nation. "We believe that through the
implementation of the peace process, the CAR will be able to resume the
unrestricted export of rough diamonds, supported by the Kimberley Process
Certification System, and, paraphrasing the President, help turn the CAR
resolutely towards its development," she said.
Although
the CAR remains under Kimberley Process suspension, forbidding diamond exports
from areas falling outside of the so-called green zones in the western part of
the country, from which diamond exports are approved monthly by a monitoring
team, its government has been working closely with the Kimberley Process to
enable the sale of artisanally-mined alluvial stones.
The
WDC strongly advocates that the CAR and other countries where artisanal diamond
mining is prominent enjoy similar benefits from their production as do other
African countries that have seen their economies and nations transformed by the
proceeds from diamond sales. Improving the living and working conditions of
workers in the diamond mining industry, as well that of workers in other key
sectors, like agriculture and forestry, will have a positive impact on the
communities that they support.
Ms.
Kaninda said, as well as other sectors of the economy and the country in
general. "These are the developments that we would like the Kimberley
Process to support, through the expansion of its scope," she noted. "Someone
wrote, 'When Africa awakens, the world will flourish,'" the WDC Executive
Director stated.
"Indeed,
Africa needs to awaken, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. When we talk about this
great and beautiful continent, we still talk too often about violence, lack of
democracy, poverty and corruption. These are evils and words that we would like
to feel or hear no longer."
"When
we talk about Africa we still refer too often to developmental aid. Yet we all
know that real development comes through education, work and direct investment.
It is time for Sub-Saharan Africa to rise up and develop all its human, mining,
agricultural and energy potential, to escape from its state of
under-development and enter a new era," she said.
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