For the past few years, the villages of Bongonza and Bayeu, located in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Tshopo Province in Banalia Territory, have been faced with semi-industrial gold mining. However, the two communities see little benefit from this mining.

Gold mining in the area has expanded significantly since 2020, with the arrival of mining operators who use heavy machinery directly within local communities. Mining offers no benefits to the local population due to a lack of oversight, structured local governance, and mechanisms for the community to defend their rights. It has also accelerated degradation of the ecosystem, directly affecting the land and livelihoods of the inhabitants.

Before the Swedish-funded Powering Resilience project, the communities of Bongonza and Bayeu had no formal local structures to manage their ecosystem, plan development, or coordinate community initiatives. This limited their ability to cope with the impacts of artisanal and semi-industrial mining and the effects of climate change. The lack of a decision-making mechanism made it difficult to organize collectively, resolve conflicts, and ensure the inclusive participation of all social groups. It also prevented the community from organizing collectively and advocating with mining operators to respect their rights and grant them benefits.

IMPACT and its partners, such as OCEAN in Tshopo Province, are helping to fill this gap by supporting communities to establish legally recognized Local Development Committees (LDCs). Capacity building for members has provided communities with structured, transparent local governance capable of ensuring sustainable management of natural resources and independent implementation of development actions.

Mining has severely degraded the local environment, causing water pollution, ecosystem destruction, and soil erosion, compromising livelihoods and exposing communities to increased health risks. It has also intensified land conflicts, insecurity, and social tensions around mining sites. In this context, the support of IMPACT and OCEAN was essential to strengthen community governance and help villages protect their resources and resilience.

In May 2025, the project provided concrete support for the establishment of LCDs in Bongonza and Bayeu by combining structured legal support, organizational assistance, and targeted community capacity. This intervention began with the facilitation of participatory sessions to draft statutes and internal regulations, followed by their validation at a general assembly and official signing by LCD members. They then supported the legalization of these documents with the relevant provincial authorities, ensuring formal recognition of the structures. At the same time, IMPACT and OCEAN provided training on the roles and responsibilities of governance bodies, the rights and obligations of members, and internal conflict management procedures. This integrated support enabled communities to establish legitimate, functional governance bodies capable of ensuring independent and transparent management of local development.

“After obtaining the legal documents for our LCD, thanks to the support of IMPACT and its partner OCEAN, we [the community of Bongonza] now have legal tools that will enable us to claim our rights from the mining companies and cooperatives operating in our village of Bongnoza,” says Mr. John Malombi Monzongo, President of Bongonza’s LCD.

Once officially recognized, the two LCD’s were quickly able to engage in formal dialogue with mining operators. The communities were able to reap benefits in just a few short months:

• The construction of a school, now nearing completion in Bongoza and Bayeu
• The acquisition of a rice husker for rice-producing households, which transforms paddy rice into white rice and adds value to the product. This husker is a low-cost service offered by the LCD.

These initial achievements are the result of efforts by the LCDs to engage in dialogue with mining operators in the area. Until then, their presence and activities, which were poorly documented and carried out at a rapid pace, did not bring significant benefits to local communities. Thanks to their official recognition, the LCDs have been able to engage in formal dialogue with these operators, requiring them to partially offset the impacts of mining. The school meets a priority social need expressed by the villages, while the rice husker supports an essential activity for producer households and generates local added value. These achievements illustrate the concrete effects of community governance supported by IMPACT and OCEAN.

Communities taking a lead

Today, communities have governance bodies capable of continuing to defend their rights and negotiate with economic actors present in their territory.

Thanks to their official recognition and newly strengthened capacity, the LCDs of Bongonza and Bayeu are now fully independent in defending the interests of their communities. They have a clear mandate, legal documents, and legitimacy that enable them to negotiate with mining operators, monitor and enforce the commitments made, as well as plan and guide local development.

This transformation marks a major turning point: communities have gone from being populations subjected to mining to actors capable of influencing and negotiating structural investments. The experience of the villages of Bongonza and Bayeu shows that legal, organizational, and technical strengthening of community structures is an essential pillar of resilience.

The Powering Resilience project has helped to improve community participation by strengthening skills in ecosystem management and has increased their power to influence their own development, ensuring that their interests are taken into account with a view to sustainable and equitable change.