The Fair Congo initiatives were launched in 2017, a collaboration between the Chambers Federation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), among other partners. The Fair Congo initiatives are currently focused on the exportation of conflict-free ASM gold with the greater goal of creating additional supply chains of natural resource based products from the DRC, including minerals, timber, and agricultural products, all produced and exported in a transparent, legal, and sustainable manner while providing a fair-trade value to the communities who produce them. Fair Congo supports all responsible gold programs (donor funded) operating in the DRC at an at-cost basis and has successfully exported to over 6 countries in North America and Europe.

Fair Congo, sarl (www.faircongo.com) is a for-profit company registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2017, fully licensed as a ‘comptoir’, an artisanal gold export office by the national Ministry of Mines. This is the first and only exporter in the region to conform to the ‘OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas’.

The Fair Congo Foundation (www.faircongo.org) is a non-profit based in the DRC, currently undergoing the final registration process. The Foundation’s principle task is to manage the export standards of Fair Congo, sarl. The Foundation also manages several women and youth empowerment initiatives and promotes and markets artwork from the DRC.

Expected Outcome
1. Provide community with higher incomes through direct market access
2. Create jobs by expanding quantity and quality of exportable products through market demand
3. Creating an inclusive job market, providing opportunities to disadvantaged groups, primarily women
4. Provide government with unrealized taxes
5. Provide all levels of the supply chain with legal compliance as well as public relations ‘positives’
6. Improve the overall stability of the region’s economy

*While not owned by the Chambers Federation, Fair Congo has sent notice of Force Majeure as a former beneficiary of capacity building and investment. The company is expected to be closed, if not already, within 2021 or the first months of 2022. Please keep an eye for any public notices in this regard.