Supply Chain Transparency + Resource Diplomacy

Sep 18, 2014

What can Tiffany, Apple, and Motorola Solutions do to create peace? They can partner with mining companies, governments, NGOs, refiners, and others to promote ethical supply chains that support peace and development. These partnerships are happening, and while they’re creating significant change, some fundamental challenges continue.

Ambassador Tim Martin (former Canadian Ambassador to Colombia and Chair of the Kimberley Process) and I just published an article in this month’s journal of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Conflicts of the Future. The article – entitled Conflict Minerals, Ethical Supply Chains, and Peace - focuses on how supply chain initiatives have developed over the last 15 years. In our article, Tim and I discuss the last two decades of progress in sustainable sourcing of the minerals that appear in our smartphones, our jewelry, and other products. The article pulls lessons from the early days of the Kimberley Process, more recent initiatives like Solutions for Hope, and other efforts in between to highlight the importance of and continuing need for multi-sector “resource diplomacy” – interventions by public-private coalitions to support capacity building in regions impacted by conflict.

Read more about Tim’s thoughts on the need for resource diplomacy on his blog.

Find out what Intel is doing here. Check out this public-private partnership supporting responsible sourcing efforts. You can also read about Motorola Solutions’ contribution through closed supply chains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Mike Loch’s article Taking the Conflict out of Conflict Minerals.

– Steve D’Esposito, President