“The year 2011 heralded the convergence of
various initiatives seeking to curtail the
financing of conflict in the Great Lakes
region through the illegal exploitation of
minerals. The combined effect of seeking to
comply with the various processes has had
significant implications at the national,
regional and international levels by altering
the dynamics of mineral exploitation in the
region in both positive and negative ways.
The positive impact has been in the area of
the immense contribution of the initiatives
to increased awareness of the role of illegally exploited minerals in financing
conflict in the region and the need for various stakeholders to exercise responsibility in the sourcing and trading
of minerals so as not to inadvertently fuel
insecurity. Against this background, this
policy brief aims at providing a framework
for responding to the unintended consequences
of existing initiatives in the Great Lakes
region. It details the areas of immediate
impact of these initiatives, their overall
impact on the trends of insecurity in the
region and ways of addressing the issues in
the short to medium term.”
