IMPACT is pleased to present our newly released 2020 Annual Report, Shifting Paradigms.
2020 was a pivotal year. Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic change the social, economic, and security situation for many of the partners and communities we work with—it forced us to change how we work and how we respond.
We’ve strengthened our focus on research and closely collaborated with our local partners to understand how the pandemic and restrictions have affected livelihoods, security, supply chains, illicit trade, and gender equality. By understanding the shifting landscape, we are able to adapt the support we provide to partners and communities to ensure its relevance for all stakeholders maximizing its impact.
The uncertainty felt around the global has been amplified in local communities. Our work to support them has continued during this time. We’re excited to share with you highlights from our work from the past year to transform natural resource management in areas where security and human rights are at risk.
A few milestones from 2020
- In January, we began the Digging for Equality project to support gender equality in the artisanal mining sectors of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
- In April, we published our first research on how COVID-19 was affecting illicit trade in the artisanal gold mining sector—and how large cross-border traders were seizing on the opportunity to smuggle gold from DRC.
- In September, we announced the first export of responsible artisanal gold from Côte d’Ivoire through the Just Gold project to a European LBMA-listed refiner.
- Also in September, we revealed how legal traders are circumventing legal channels to pocket massive profits from smuggling in our investigative report, The Intermediaries: Traders who Threaten the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Efforts for Conflict-Free Gold.
- In December, we launched the first ever gender impact assessment tailored to the ASM sector, Toolkit: Gender Impact Assessments for Projects and Policies Related to Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining, to support those implementing projects or revising policies to understand how women and men may be affected differently.
We’re delighted to share all of this and more with you in our 2020 Annual Report. We invite you to read it here, and share with your network.