Digital Mineral Traceability in Sierra Leone and Liberia

GIZ has been working in Sierra Leone on behalf of the BMZ since 1963 and in Liberia since 1974. The mandate was suspended during the 1990s because of the civil wars. During the 2000s cooperation was resumed and since 2010 GIZ has once again been represented through a regional office for Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia based in Freetown. The four Mano River Union (MRU) countries are some of the least developed in the world. The mining sector is of varying importance for their respective economies. According to the International Monetary Fund, Sierra Leone and Liberia are considered resource dependent, as the sector is crucial for their exports, Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and state revenues. In the MRU countries, the mining sector is often fraught with social conflict, environmentally harmful extraction methods, human rights violations, inadequate civil society participation, a lack of transparency in revenue management and systemic corruption. In the past, revenue generated from minerals extraction and trading has also been used to finance armed conflict in the MRU countries. The negative legacy of these conflicts can still be felt today. From a regional standpoint, overseeing the extraction and preventing the smuggling of gold and diamonds from artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) poses a challenge. Frontier and customs officials in the region have limited knowledge of mineral resources and the mechanisms used to smuggle them across the border. All of the above constitutes a risk to the establishment of sustainable mineral supply chains. The MRU countries are still in the early phases of digitalising their administration processes. So far, the introduction of a Minerals Cadastre Administration System (MCAS) in Liberia and Sierra Leone has enabled licensing processes to be defined and structured, which makes for transparent and efficient licence management. However, while especially Sierra Leone has made good progress in the administration of mining licences and revenue, management of the ASM sector is still insufficiently digitalised. Also, regular oversight is not practised coherently and effectively in the project countries due to the lack of capacity on the part of the governments" environmental and mining authorities. With respect to the implementation of the Kimberley Process for diamonds in the MRU countries and supply chain certification, traceability continues to be paper based making it susceptible to error and falsification and also inefficient. This can be changed by digitalising the process and linking oversight data with digital traceability which will help implement the Kimberley Process and foster sustainable, traceable supply chains.