Good movie but a better story

This year has been a fascinating and hectic one, starting with a surge of public interest in the KP when Blood Diamond opened in cinemas, and culminating in the annual plenary meeting which brings together all 73 member countries, applicants, industry, civil society and international organisations. There have also been a number of important developments during the year.

We believe the KP can be a model, an inspiration for tackling so-called ‘conflict resources’.  The KP is the only multilateral, multi-stakeholder initiative of its kind and, while it is certainly not perfect, it has been reasonably effective. Conflict diamonds now account for a tiny percentage of world production — only in Côte d’Ivoire, a relatively small producer, do rebels still control diamond fields. The importance of international support (from the UN General Assembly and Security Council), the need for industry and civil society to be involved from the beginning along with producer and consumer countries, and its flexible, pragmatic approach are all lessons we can take from the KP and apply to other contexts.

Governments and industry can sometimes be tempted by the attractions of secrecy, but in today’s world openness is often a more effective way to operate.  We have been pleased to see the KP take the decision to publish the production and trade statistics it collects.

They are not perfect, but these statistics are arguably the best data out there, and we hope journalists, civil society and other interested parties will use them.  We are beginning to put more KP documentation on the website too; unless there are good reasons to keep reports private (to encourage frank dialogue, for example), they will be made public.

Last autumn, the UN reported allegations that Ivorian conflict diamonds were being smuggled through Ghana.  There was considerable pressure on the KP to ‘do something’, ideally without harming the estimated 10,000 artisanal miners and the legitimate mining industry in Ghana.

In November 2006, the KP negotiated a balanced package with Ghana. This package included additional monitoring and technical assistance provided by a past KP chair, Abbey Chikane, which was jointly funded by the European Union and South Africa, whilst emphasising Ghana’s role in controlling its informal sector.  

The diamond industry, through the World Diamond Council, played a leading role, making its experts available to aid in reviewing individual packages. Another past chair, Tim Martin, led a KP team to review Ghana’s efforts.  These intensive efforts have now been recognised by the UN, and there are grounds for cautious optimism.  

In March, the European Commission led a team of KP experts to Liberia, in close co-operation with the UN sanctions panel and the UN’s peacekeeping mission there.  This was the third such KP mission in as many years, and this time it found that Liberia did meet KP standards.  The KP’s report was influential in the Security Council’s decision to lift its diamond sanctions, and consequently Liberia was admitted to the KP on May 4, 2007.  We are investigating support to the government of Liberia.  Liberia’s KP system is very much work in progress, but these cumulative efforts make a tangible contribution to conflict prevention in West Africa.

That of course is not all.  Besides secretarial activities and organising the two major yearly KP conferences, we have added a number of new participants, carried out many peer review visits to KP applicants and members, and commissioned work on traceability of diamonds. None of this would have been possible without the active and dedicated support of our partners around the world.

The KP is not perfect, but it is making a considerable difference where it counts.

Alyson King works for the Kimberley Process Secretariat.