It is estimated that at least 25 million people worldwide are engaged in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). The Tiffany & Co. Foundation’s Responsible Mining program supports nonprofit organizations helping artisanal mining communities improve their work environments, livelihoods and the ability to participate in setting global mining standards which have the potential to benefit them directly.

For the past four years, the Foundation has supported the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in convening dialogues between artisanal mining communities, large-scale mining companies and government. By hosting a much-needed neutral space for collaboration, IIED creates a setting that builds trust and enables collective action among the three groups, whose cooperation is vital to improving the ASM sector worldwide.

IIED’s pilot program in Ghana gathered 55 representatives in January 2016 from local and national governments, ASM and large-scale mining, as well as civil society and academia, for a two-day learning experience at a mine site and a two-day workshop examining solutions to the challenges facing artisanal and small-scale gold miners. The Foundation supported IIED’s second ASM dialogue program in Tanzania, which gathered a similar group of stakeholders in November 2017. IIED’s programs in Tanzania and Ghana will contribute to IIED’s broader efforts to build a global forum for collaboration that promotes better governance, a greater voice for artisanal miners, and safe and productive working conditions in mining communities.

IIED has profiled ASM miners working in Tanzania and Ghana in the organization’s “Stories of Change” publications, which can be found here.