FCA member since August 2020
The Impact Facility is one of the founding members of the FCA and serves as its permanent Secretariat.
The Impact Facility is an international non-profit with offices in Kolwezi (DRC), Kenya, the Netherlands and the UK. that seeks to turn mineral wealth into a driver of sustainable community development. We strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises in mining communities, including ASM operations, by ensuring access to the resources and expertise required to adopt responsible production and business practices, bolstering economic resilience. To do this, companies require access to: capacity building and technical expertise, investment capital or equipment as well as fair and formalized markets. We develop and manage impact programmes, include and convene supply chain stakeholders that are crucial to drive change on the ground through leveraging blended finance and channelling demand for better produced resources. Next to our work on cobalt, The Impact Facility also works on professionalizing artisanal and small scale gold mining across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, through our Lake Victoria Gold Programme.
As a charity focussed on uplifting communities in mineral rich areas, working on cobalt and specifically the aspect of artisanal mining in the DRC posed a natural next step from our work on gold across East Africa.
Thousands of livelihoods depend on the DRC’s ASM cobalt sector, holding the potential to serve as an engine for dignified employment and sustainable development. Our multi-disciplinary team conducted the research that led to the creation of the FCA – documented, in parts, though the Digging for Change report.
“Well-coordinated action and significant investment are needed to achieve lasting improvement in the DRC’s ASM cobalt sector. The Fair Cobalt Alliance offers organisations from across the cobalt supply chain a vehicle to pool resources and collaborate in a pre-competitive environment. We are proud to be part of an alliance committed to take responsibility and contribute to change on the ground.”
As we are moving from a fossil fuel based economy to a minerals economy, the worldwide demand for many minerals is expected to increase greatly. While a move to a circular economy with increasing volumes stemming from recycling is key, our reliance on the mining sector will grow and continue to persist for decades to come. Therefore efforts to ensure the mining sector is improved and can contribute to a sustainable transition for developing economies is even more urgent. Cobalt is an example of one of the minerals. We therefore call on all actors involved in the cobalt sector at large to join us and achieve a system wide change!
David Sturmes
Director of Programme & Business Development
[email protected]