Enabling Progressive Due Diligence in Côte d’Ivoire

Artisanal gold mining plays a significant role in Côte d’Ivoire, contributing to livelihoods in many communities. But out of the estimated 30 tonnes of annual production, only 1 percent is declared. Local supply chain actors find due diligence requirements too complex and costly. In addition, responsible sourcing initiatives often sideline existing traders. 

IMPACT worked with Solidaridad to address some of these challenges, incentivizing cooperatives and traders to participate in responsible sourcing and exploring how artisanal gold supply chains from the country could scale. As part of the Scaling Up project, they tested how digital tools—Bloom by IMPACT and Extension Solutions from Solidaridad—could support traders and the artisanal mines they source from to operate responsibly. IMPACT and Solidaridad worked across four mine sites in Côte d’Ivoire and the two traders who sourced their gold. The project supported cooperatives to implement due diligence by using the CRAFT Code.

The Bloom team adapted the CRAFT Code into a custom Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework, with indicators and data points that needed to be collected for compliance and social impact monitoring. These indicators were then mapped to the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, which is used to monitor compliance and outcomes such as changes in behaviour, conditions, or practices resulting from the due diligence process.

Bloom integrated with Solidaridad’s Extension Solution app, which enabled mine managers to track their progress on the CRAFT Code, generate workplans to close any existing gaps, and upload evidence of their progress. This provided miners with an efficient tool for managing operations at the mine, and sharing text, documents, and photos with traders in real time, making the whole supply chain more transparent and efficient.

The local gold traders were able to view the cooperatives’ progress and supporting evidence to check due diligence on their supply chain. The traders were able to provide support to the mines they source from to address any compliance gaps. 

Solidaridad used the Extension Solutions app to collect data related to the CRAFT Code workplan. This data then flowed back into Bloom to demonstrate progress against related OECD Due Diligence outcomes. The local supply chains actors and project team members were able to quickly understand their compliance with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance and share that information in a digestible format with international supply chain actors—potential buyers.

This increased transparency is an exciting innovation, not just for miners and traders in producing countries, but also for gold buyers including aggregators, who often face challenges tracking practices in the first mile of their supply chains.