From 17 to 18 March 2020, AFREWATCH organised in Kolwezi a workshop gather-ing stakeholders in the artisanal mining working on copper and cobalt to analyze the problems, challenges of the sector and pro-pose recommendations to be submitted to the 14th OECD forum in order to harmonize the views of stakeholders on copper and cobalt.

This is the fi rst time Congolese stakeholders gather to exchange and harmonize their views regarding the artisanal exploitation of copper and cobalt. However, the Bureau d’Etudes Scientifi ques et Techniques (BEST), with the fi nancial support of CORDAID, had organised another pre-paratory workshop for the 13th OECD Forum to discuss the issue of 3T + gold.

This is a major step forward in the DRC’s participation in the forum; it is a re-sponse to the need for lack of prepara-tion and organisation on the DRC side. The workshop brought together offi -cials from ministries and departments, company representatives, managers of cooperatives and artisanal miners op-erating in the diff erent artisanal mining sites, civil society organizations work-ing on the issue, representatives of lo-cal communities located next to mining companies, etc.

To facilitate the discussions during the workshop, the participants were divid-ed into the following three themes: the problem of the creation and functioning of the ZEAs, cooperatives and their via-bility; the protection of children’s rights

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