{"id":434,"date":"2018-05-24T09:03:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T08:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/?p=434"},"modified":"2018-06-07T13:17:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T12:17:53","slug":"sierra-leone-diamonds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/2018\/05\/24\/sierra-leone-diamonds\/","title":{"rendered":"How the wealth from Sierra Leone's diamonds fails to enrich local communities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How do diamonds move from the mine to the market, and who benefits from this trade? Research from Roy Maconachie<\/a>, Reader in International Development at the University of Bath, powerfully captured in a short film, suggests that in Sierra Leone, it's the international traders rather than the local communities where the diamonds are mined who are the real winners. This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Ever since diamonds were discovered in Sierra Leone in the 1930s, they have had a significant impact on the country \u2013 socially, politically and economically. This is partly to do with how they are extracted from the ground.<\/p>\n

In countries in southern Africa, diamond mining is mostly undertaken by large-scale, mechanised companies, which monitor and control deep reserves. But in Sierra Leone, diamonds are more commonly dispersed close to the surface of river beds. They can be found by anyone with a shovel and a sieve.<\/p>\n

This accessibility has made Sierra Leone\u2019s diamond-rich Kono district a magnet for migrant workers \u2013 mostly young, single, uneducated, unemployed men seeking their fortunes. World Bank estimates<\/a> suggest the artisanal diamond mining sector is now Sierra Leone\u2019s second largest employer (after agriculture), providing a livelihood for between 300,000 and 400,000 people.<\/p>\n

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Dirty work.<\/span>
\nRoy Maconachie and Simon Wharf<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Since 2003, I have been carrying out research<\/a> in Kono, looking into the challenges of the diamond mining sector, and its problems of exploitation and poverty. My most recent project<\/a>, funded by the US foundation Humanity United<\/a>, aims to shed some light on the challenges of natural resource governance, and converting revenues into sustainable development.<\/p>\n

Despite the non-mechanical and non-regulated nature of artisanal diamond extraction in Sierra Leone, there is still a tightly managed, highly ordered structure to production. Typically, gangs of labourers will work together in small areas, digging up gravel, and transporting and washing it. A different group of people will supply the miners with food and tools while they do this \u2013 but no payment will be offered unless diamonds are found.<\/p>\n

This highly unequal relationship between diggers and \u201csupporters\u201d has led to serious concerns over the detrimental social impact of diamond mining in Sierra Leone. It has even been described<\/a> as a \u201csystem of debt bondage and a contemporary form of slavery\u201d. One local expert told me:<\/p>\n

Everybody is doing business to maximise profit \u2026 [by suppressing] those that are below.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet the artisanal diamond mining sector still has an important role to play in driving local economic development in rural areas. It supports hundreds of thousands of poor people, supplying valuable start-up capital for other economic activities, and helping to nourish smallholder agriculture.<\/p>\n

Generally, though, Sierra Leone\u2019s wealth of natural resources \u2013 gold, iron ore, bauxite and rutile \u2013 has not translated into better living conditions for its people. In fact, the opposite has been true.<\/p>\n