DDI Receives Grant from Cartier, Appoints Chair to Friends Campaign

DDI International is working with local leaders and civil society to identify sites where diamonds are produced in ways that are environmentally sound, and where diggers receive a fair price, working under safe conditions.

Their diamonds will then be tracked through the trading, polishing and retail system to provide customers with gems that go beyond standard definitions of “ethical” and “fair trade” products.

These pilots, if successful stand to revolutionize the development prospects for miners like these and their communities – where an estimated 15 percent of the world’s gem diamonds are produced, according to DDI.

The Cartier grant will also support other DDII projects, including human rights training in Africa and a major registration project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is bringing more than 70,000 miners into the formal sector.

“I have just returned from a month in the Congo and I can say that Cartier’s support is not just a vote of support for our work, it is a solid example of how the concept of corporate social responsibility has expanded beyond the immediate corporate environment to a wider world of development possibilities," said  DDII’s Executive Director Dorothée Gizenga.

There are an estimated 1.3 million artisanal diamond diggers across Africa, serving as the primary breadwinner for families that total as many as 10 million people, DDII reports.

These diggers earn on average, about a dollar a day, and there are tens of thousands like them in South America as well.

In related news, DDI announced that Susan Jacques, CEO of Borsheims Fine Jewelry and Gifts, will be the honorary chair of the Friends of DDI fundraising campaign.

The Friends of DDI program includes a Retailers Friendship Kit that will allow jewelry retailers and suppliers to demonstrate to their customers and constituents that the industry is making a positive impact on the lives of the people who mine diamonds by artisanal methods.