An Invitation From The Diamond Working Group of the Madison Dialogue
GET INVOLVED NOW!!!
The end result of the Madison Dialogue was several working groups, each planning on tackling issues around ethical standards and principals with the ultimate aim of developing third party certification processes. Here is the first public statement from Amanda Stark, the Rapaport Fair Trade Liaison and Estelle Levin, a minerals and sustainability consultant. They are the current chairs of the, Diamond Working Group.
With the holiday season firmly behind us (alas), the Madison Dialogue Diamonds Working Group will have its first teleconference on January 15th at 4 p.m. GMT. If you would like to join this group, please let either Estelle or Amanda know as soon as possible. If you have already been in communication with us to this effect, you should receive an email with details of the phone-in procedure before the end of the week.
During this first meeting, the agenda will be as follows:
1. Introductions to group members:
Who you are, where you are and what you do in diamonds.
2. Group Purpose and Objectives
Proposed objectives include:
a.) Coordination and communication tool for the various efforts to produce an ethical or fair trade diamond
b.) Sharing learning towards best practice
c.) The development of a framework for responsible artisanal diamond mining and trading
d.) Helping make diamonds work for development
3. Group Activities
At the Madison Dialogue Meeting in Washington, D.C., the breakout group which worked on diamonds agreed that there is a need to coordinate efforts to produce assured or certified ‘ethical’ diamonds. A call was made to develop “common principles for ethical diamonds”, with a view, in time, to developing standards for third party certification, derived from these common principles. This proposed activity would therefore draw on the experiences and advances made by ARM, the DDI, Rapaport Group, the Mwadui Community Diamond Partnership, the Peace Diamond Alliance, and other initiatives, with a view to finding common ground between them and bringing together these initiatives where appropriate. This would also feed into the work of other General Principles Working Groups.
4. Group Management and Selection of Coordinator
a.) Frequency of teleconferences
b.) How decision-making will work
c.) How reporting to the main Madison Dialogue list will work
d.) The selection of a group coordinator
5. Any Other Business
It is important that this group does not try to replicate work already being done, while recognizing where it might meaningfully contribute to other, separate initiatives. It is vital, therefore, that we have a really clear idea of the purpose of the group and what it can achieve.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Estelle Levin and Amanda Stark
