PROMOTING LEGAL MINERAL TRADE IN AFRICA'S GREAT LAKES REGION

5 Resource Consulting Services (RCS) is a research, strategy development and implementation consultancy that provides considered solutions to clients' challenges in the extractive and agricultural sectors. We employ world-class analytical skills to develop practical strategies that are fact-based and scientifically informed. Our analysis and strategies are matched with advisory, implementation and evaluation services throughout a project's lifespan. RCS has global reach, drawing on core staff expertise and in-country specialists. Our range of products has helped those in the private sector, including extractive companies, investment banks, the World Bank, the US and European governments and many others, to better understand and help navigate otherwise concealed and previously unforeseen dynamics. As a result, RCS's clients can better navigate vested economic and political interests, including governmental integrity and artisanal mining issues. Clients of RCS capitalise on numerous identified opportunities, such as more effective political and economic relationships with relevant stakeholders. For research and analysis purposes RCS has developed tailored Political Economy Assessment (PEA) and Economic Impact Assessment (EIA) methodologies to inform strategy development and advice. The PEA identifies and helps understand political and economic incentives that underlie stakeholder actions, and the risks and opportunities that these present to projects and processes. The EIA provides detailed information on the intricate workings of economic systems and processes that directly and indirectly affect projects. For strategy development and implementation purposes, RCS provides relationship management and communication strategies in complex and challenging environments, focussed on a wide range of stakeholders. Our wide range of experience and knowledge, gained from working with communities, civil society, governments and intergovernmental organisations, positions us uniquely to advise industry and others, drawing on our unrivalled knowledge of how these sectors view and relate to political and business and political environments. RCS provides key local knowledge to help facilitate investment into developing countries enabling our clients to understand integrity issues regarding persons and companies and trace beneficial ownership structures, revenue payments and conducts. RCS provides information on supply chain risk and management, and also advises companies on the development and implementation of international certification schemes for natural resources. 6 FUNDING The United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINBUZA) have funded the work on this report. DISCLAIMER The information contained in this report is obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information presented and the conclusions reached …