Hi Ray, If you are interested by artisanal mining sites in DRC, I'd suggest you also check (if not yet) this great IPIS project displaying illegal taxation and armed group presence on artisanal mining sites. Last year 591 mines out of the 1088 they visited reported the presence of at least one armed group, this can give some kind of scale. I'm guessing they are now preparing the 2015 update. Report: http://ipisresearch.be/publication/analysis-interactive-map-artisanal-mining-areas-eastern-drc-may-2014-update/ Dynamic map: http://www.ipisresearch.be/mapping/webmapping/drcongo/
Unfortunately it doesn't contain (yet?) any info on now compliancy status. That would be an interesting added value info to join and share. If you get any news from USAID, please let us know. That's sometimes difficult to understand why an official project factsheet cannot include links towards the full report and data but maybe it isn't even ready yet... I'll be sharing your concern to some IPIS and USAID staff in DRC and will let you know. Best, Claire Claire Halleux +243 81 611 6998 (Kinshasa, DRC) OpenStreetMap RDC Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team https://www.facebook.com/OpenStreetMap.RDC http://www.hotosm.org/ On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 5:46 AM, Robert Banick <rban...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Ray, > > I don’t work on conflict sites or mining certification, so take what I’m > about to say with a grain of salt. I *do *however work in international > aid so I have some perspective on how these projects work in general. > > The 140 number is probably compiled by specialized reporting staff whose > job it is to extract and verify these numbers from specialized program > management staff. Note that the latter will be prioritizing making the > project work while the former will prioritize making the numbers correct > and verifiable. Which means that the list exists but it’s probably buried > on the project manager’s hard drive somewhere in the DRC or with luck at > headquarters and could only be dug up with difficulty. > > That’s the (over-?)simplified version of How Things Tend To Work. It could > be different on this project or in the mining certification sector. > > If the process sounds not at all ideal, trust me, many many people are > away of this and trying to do better. Aid reporting is a really tricky > compromise between not holding back program staff from doing good work with > reporting red tape and getting the donating public information they > deserve. In my experience very few agencies find a balance that everyone’s > happy with. If that sounds like so many excuses, keep in mind that many > developed world governments have only recently started to publicly release > similar information for taxpayer funded projects despite tax revenues that > go into the hundreds of billions or even trillions. > > I hope this clarifies things for you. Coming from the world of > open-everything I couldn’t agree more that it would be great to have this > information somewhere easily accessible. > > Cheers, > Robert > > — > Sent from Mailbox <https://www.dropbox.com/mailbox> > > > On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 9:50 AM, Ray Kiddy <r...@ganymede.org> wrote: > >> >> I was reading a report on conflict minerals. >> >> http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/672051.pdf >> >> It pointed to an USAID document about mining in the Great Lakes region >> of Africa. >> >> >> https://www.usaid.gov/democratic-republic-congo/fact-sheets/usaiddrc-fact-sheet-responsible-minerals-trade >> >> This contained the following statement about mining sites in the DRC: >> >> SELECT 2014 ACCOMPLISHMENTS >> >> 140 artisanal mine sites have been validated as free >> from child labor and illegal taxation. >> >> Whenever I see statements like this, I always wonder about them. For >> example, where are these 140 sites? How are these sites identified? It >> sounds as though they went through a list of the sites, or that such a >> list of sites exists. And it sounds as though they marked the sites >> "yes" or "no". Where is that list? If that list did not exist before, >> they would at least have to have a list of the 140 sites now. They >> certainly do not seem to be publishing that or any other list. They are >> just waving the number "140" around. >> >> So, does anyone have any idea how one would find the locations of any >> of these sites, the compliant or non-compliant sites? >> >> I submitted the question to the USAID web site, but I think the site >> swallowed the question. I entered the question and hit the submit >> button and it gave me the blank form again. Which seems wrong. And I >> have not heard from them. >> >> So, any ideas or suggestions? >> >> thanx - ray >> >> _______________________________________________ >> HOT mailing list >> HOT@openstreetmap.org >> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot >> > > > _______________________________________________ > HOT mailing list > HOT@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot > >
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