I write these words with a sense of sadness, because bidding farewell to family is always painful, but also with feelings of pride and accomplishment. After more than two years of service as Executive Director of the World Diamond Council (WDC), the time has come for me to move on.
Formally, WDC AGMs provide the forum at which the organization’s officers report on the association’s activities within the context of the Kimberley Process (KP), its finances and its plans for the coming year.
In 2015, AWDC began a cooperation with CAP Conseil, a Belgian sustainable development consulting company, with the initial goal of establishing a jewelry project, called “My Fair Diamond,” whose artisanally-mined stones would be “ethical” and traceable.
Elsewhere as well, and sometimes closer to home, WDC members are reinvesting in the communities in which they operate and upon which they depend.
The May edition of Forbes Afrique, the French-language version of the influential economic periodical that focuses specifically on African affairs, has listed Marie-Chantal Kaninda, Executive Director of the World Diamond Council (WDC), as one the continent’s 100 most influential women.
The KP is in the final few months of a three-year review and reform process, which is scheduled to end at the 2019 KP Plenary Meeting, which will be held in the Indian capital of New Delhi from November 11 to November 15.
It is a system that can be wieldy and cumbersome, but also effective, having the ability to eliminate the presence of almost all rough diamonds financing civil war within just several years of the KPCS being launched in 2003.
Marie-Chantal Kaninda, WDC Executive Director, was a guest of honor at a conference focusing on the role of women in the mining sector, held in Abidjan in the West African state of Côte d’Ivoire on May 31, 2019.
Rough diamonds purchased by GemFair and exported from Sierra Leone are KP-certified, and eligible to be traded legally in the major markets.
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