THE IMPACT FACILITY
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Mission Statement
The Impact Facility engages in minerals-rich landscapes with the aim to support the development of sustainably-managed, small and medium-size, locally-owned enterprises. We provide these enterprises with catalytic investments, technical assistance, and access to fair markets. As they grow, these enterprises create safe jobs, reliable income, and contribute to the long-term sustainable development of their communities, economies, and landscapes. Our mission is to turn mineral wealth in lasting prosperity for local communities, ensuring mining activities do not occur at the detriment of men, women and children living in mineral rich areas, but serve as a driver for socio-economic development.
About This Cause
The Impact Facility is a global non-profit social enterprise with a mission to support the development of thriving mining communities around the world. Our team is spread out across the UK, Kenya, Tanzania and DR Congo, working closely with a wide range of partners including co-founders TDI Sustainability and Fairphone, Solidaridad, the Chambers Federation, Save the Children Germany, The Centre for Child Rights and Business and a range of local civil society actors, especially in DR Congo. Guiding principles Mining activities come with their share of social and environmental challenges. We apply appropriately stringent social and environmental safeguards designed to maximize the benefits of mineral extraction, and minimize harm to people and nature. At the heart of our model, we seek to catalyze entrepreneurship and business activities that create safe jobs, reliable income, and contribute to lasting, sustainable community prosperity. Our programmes We currently operate two flagship programmes, the Lake Victoria Gold Programme (LV2030), centered around the artisanal gold value chain in Kenya and Tanzania; and the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA), which supports artisanal miners in the Congolese province of Lualaba. LV2030 - Professionalising artisanal gold mining in East Africa Gold-rich deposits in the Lake Victoria region in East Africa have created livelihoods for thousands of low-income communities in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector. Yet the cost has been huge. Miners use mercury to process ore, a method that’s both inefficient and vastly detrimental to health. As well as the issue of mercury use, there is often a gender income disparity as women traditionally occupy roles in gold processing that are less lucrative than positions normally held by men, such as ore extraction. In addition, mining often yields an inconsistent income, with productivity issues, a reliance on prices set by traders, and an inherent element of luck contributing to what can often be an unreliable livelihood. In some cases this can cause people to resort to child labour to make productivity economically sustainable, which in the long-term can deny children access to education, condemning them to working unskilled, low-income jobs as adults. Many of the issues in ASM are deep-rooted, and represent challenges that can best be addressed by taking a broader, supply-chain-wide perspective. Centred around the Lake Victoria region, we have helped to bring together a unique multi-stakeholder partnership at a local, national and international level that addresses problems systemically by uncovering underlying causes and applying appropriate practical solutions. In 2021, TIF successfully launched a ASM incubator programme lease-to-purchase equipment provision programme that enables artisanal gold miners. Our model enables small-scale mines to access three critical services that, together, help to catalyse economic growth and responsible mining: Capital for equipment: We enable small-scale miners to access the targeted equipment they need to accelerate their enterprises, through our leasing company, registered in Kenya and Tanzania. Technical assistance: we support mines with the adoption of improved production practices through our multi-disciplinary network of experts from mine operations, to health & safety and environmental risk management. Markets: We support artisanal miners participating in our programme to connect with mid- and downstream companies seeking to engage in transformative, responsible sourcing relationships. Fair Cobalt Alliance - Ensuring a just energy transition, inclusive of artisanal mining communities The FCA is a multi-stakeholder in initiative established in August of 2020 seeking to enable artisanal cobalt mining communities in the DR Congo to live better by being recognised as responsible participants in the global transition to cleaner, mineral-dependent energy. To achieve this, the FCA takes an holistic ecosystem approach spanning ASM mining communities. ASM is not an isolated activity, but one factor (albeit a critical factor) of an economic and social ecosystem. We therefore work both at mine sites and in the communities around the mines. To ensure artisanal cobalt mining communities can thrive, three impact objectives are key: Safe and Fair ASM: Professionally managed, clean artisanal mining meeting international (safety) standards and fair terms for workers. We focus on PPE, training, and mine infrastructure. Child labour remediation and preventions (CLRP): Children and youth in the ASM mining communities are not engaged in hazardous work but have access to education and decent work. We focus on child labour prevention and remediation. Economic resilience: ASM mining communities have increased financial literacy and resilience. We focus on savings groups and economic diversity. To reach the above objectives a key enabling objective is: Value chain participation: Actors in and around the cobalt value chain, including companies and investors, contribute actively to include ASM cobalt mining in the formal economy, thereby being a catalyst to scale and drive the long term sustainability of FCA’s impact interventions. Learn more about the FCA on our website: www.faircobaltalliance.org.