HuffPo Oped: Creating Conflict-Free Companies for the 21st Century
Posted by John Bradshaw on Aug 16, 2012
This oped co-authored with actor and ethical mining entrepreneur
Jeffrey Wright originally appeared on Huffington Post.
Conflict minerals from eastern Congo, found in our cell phones,
computers and jewelry, are mined in conditions of armed violence and
human rights abuse. Mining in Africa doesn't have to be this way.
Dialogue and engagement between consumers, miners and civil society
leaders in Africa is needed to find real, sustainable solutions.
In Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the natural
resource sector represents a global competitive advantage that should
serve as a primary pathway toward long-term stability and prosperity.
It is essential to the well being of these countries and others like
them that positive stories continue to replace the tragic ones too
often coming out of the mining sector.
For example, Taia Lion Resources ("Taia"), a mineral exploration
company currently operating in Sierra Leone—a country whose economy
used to be fueled significantly by conflict minerals, including what
became known as "blood diamonds"—aims to achieve the highest profits
and shareholder value through the implementation of an ethical and
sustainable business model designed to serve the interests of all
stakeholders. In partnership with the communities proximal to its
areas of operation, Taia undertakes the development of its commercial
prospects in parallel with the development of local social and
economic prospects. Mineral rights are not valued above human rights.
Key to the success of the model is careful relationship building—from
the onset of operations—between company and community through, free,
prior and informed consent and ongoing transparency.
A similar shift towards transparency and legitimacy has begun in the
minerals sector of eastern Congo. The shift is driven by consumer
demand for laptops, cameras and smartphones, which use conflict-free
minerals from Congo. Just as consumers reject blood diamonds, they now
recoil at "blood phones" and other devices that use the conflict
minerals of gold, tin, tungsten, and tantalum. As this video shows,
the answer is not to boycott; rather, it is to increase dialogue and
engagement leading to discernible solutions.
Ending the conflict minerals trade in eastern Congo and replacing it
with a legitimate mining sector is an achievable goal. But it can't be
accomplished by local communities, governments and advocacy groups
alone. Only when for-profit companies, on both the supply and the
demand sides, become partners in the process will a clean minerals
trade that benefits all stakeholders become a reality.
Some companies, particularly in the electronics sector, have made
significant progress in freeing their supply chains of conflict
minerals. Responding to pressure from campus activists and
anticipating the impact of forthcoming SEC regulations under
Dodd-Frank's section 1502, electronics companies have moved forward in
tracing, auditing and certifying the minerals used in their products.
The Enough Project has been encouraging these companies to show
leadership in addressing conflict minerals and has monitored their
actions. This week, Enough released the 2012 Company Rankings on
Conflict Minerals, which showed notable advances by a number of
leading companies since 2010.
Four leading companies—Intel, Motorola Solutions, HP, and Apple—have
been pioneers, not waiting for the implementation of long-delayed SEC
regulations on conflict minerals. Intel was the first company to
publicly commit to making a fully conflict-free product within a
certain deadline—a conflict-free micro-processing chip by 2013. Apple
was the first company to publicly identify the number of smelters in
its supply chain—175—and to require its suppliers to use only audited,
conflict-free smelters when available. Several other
companies—SanDisk, Philips, Sony, Panasonic, RIM, and AMD—have
significantly improved their efforts by surveying their suppliers,
piloting due diligence procedures, and joining the smelter audit
program.
Other companies continue to lag far behind. The laggards include
Nintendo, which has made no known effort to trace or audit its supply
chain, and Sharp, HTC, Nikon, and Canon, which have taken only initial
steps to join industry efforts.
The efforts of the electronics industry leaders, in collaboration with
government initiatives in central Africa's Great Lakes region, have
had a noticeable effect on the conflict in the Congo, as armed groups
are only able to generate approximately 35 percent of what they made
from the trade in tin, tantalum, and tungsten, or 3Ts, two years ago.
Conflict tin, a trade previously worth over $115 million per year, has
been particularly difficult to sell, because the physical differences
between tin from Congo and Rwanda make it tricky for smugglers to pass
off Congolese tin as Rwandan.
Despite this progress, gold smuggling remains a major problem, other
minerals continue to be smuggled, even if in smaller amounts, and the
new M23 rebel group is trying to retake control over mines. Better
independent monitoring of mines and trading routes must occur in order
to stop the smuggling. But electronics company action has been at the
center of a long-term process, as the electronics audit program begins
to accept only minerals that are fully traced back to their mines of
origin and are conflict-free.
Getting conflict minerals out of our consumer electronics is an
important goal. But we can't stop there. An even more ambitious goal
is within reach: Creating a clean, transparent, and legitimate mining
sector in eastern Congo that benefits all stakeholders but, above all,
the Congolese people who suffer the deprivations of conflict. Instead
of simply telling their suppliers not to buy from the Congo, an
approach that helps cut off armed groups but does nothing for mining
communities, companies should take a longer view and help build a
clean trade within the Congo.
Some companies have started down this road already. Seven companies
are sourcing from conflict-free mines in Congo, and 16 electronics
companies have joined the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible
Minerals Trade, or PPA. The PPA is a government-NGO-corporate
partnership created to develop traced and certified conflict-free
minerals from the region. Motorola Solutions, Intel, and HP also
helped get the smelter audit program to accept conflict-free minerals
from Congo and the region that are certified by a regional government
body, which means that greater amounts of clear minerals from Congo
will go into electronic products next year, as mines become certified
conflict-free.
Companies that use these minerals in their products should strive to
invest in a way that creates shared value for both companies and
communities. More local business leaders who have profited from the
corrupt conflict trade are beginning to realize that with investment
that is fully traceable and independently monitored, they can better
serve their own interests and workers in their communities can enjoy
livelihoods that benefit their families. As we're beginning to see
elsewhere in Africa -- in places like Sierra Leone -- companies in the
diamond and gold industries can work successfully with local
communities when the commitment to doing so is serious.
The progress made by the electronics companies in the Enough Project's
rankings now needs to be duplicated by companies in other sectors.
Companies in the jewelry, automotive, industrial machinery and
aerospace industries should join the Public Private Alliance and begin
direct sourcing programs to help Congo develop a clean minerals trade.
Collaboration between commercial investors, development agencies and
advocacy groups can help find sustainable solutions and end the
conflict minerals trade which has been an essential driver of the
long, brutal conflicts which have plagued parts of Africa for too
long.
Award-winning actor Jeffrey Wright is founder and vice chairman of
Taia Lion Resources and co-founder and chairman of Taia Peace
Foundation which work together to assist rural Africa communities in
overcoming the "resource curse."
Photo: Miners at a trading site in eastern Congo (Enough / Sasha Lezhnev)
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