OUr sourcing protocol
At Gems With Origin, we prioritize responsible gemstone sourcing by promoting sustainability, protecting human rights, and ensuring supply chain transparency. Our approach is inspired by the CRAFT Code, adheres to the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, and aligns with the ethical standards of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC). Our practices are adapted to Madagascar's unique context, which we consider, in our case, a conflict-affected and high-risk areas.
Indeed, according to the OECD, conflict-affected and high-risk areas are regions characterized by armed conflict, widespread violence, or other risks of harm to people. Armed conflict can take various forms, including international or non-international conflicts, wars of liberation, insurgencies, or civil wars. High-risk areas may also include regions facing political instability, repression, weak institutions, insecurity, the collapse of civil infrastructure, or widespread violence. These areas often experience severe human rights abuses and violations of national or international law.
In addition to these criteria, we also consider factors such as high corruption rates, predatory behaviors, and a lack of government involvement or formalization in determining high-risk areas.
We classify Madagascar as a high-risk area based on both the OECD’s criteria and our own standards. This ensures our sourcing practices are rooted in accountability and respect for the communities and environments connected to our gemstones.
Furthermore, our approach is based on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We aim to maximize our impact in every area we source from.
Our protocol is based on the desire to maximize the added value locally and to uplift the communities. We believe that the path to do so is via education, and especially through the development of the industries supporting mining. Further than responsible sourcing, we want to responsibly cut, keeping our supply chain in-country is our contribution to the beneficiation of the colored gemstone industry for the local communities.
Our step-by-step approach is based on:
Putting in place a comprehensive and sensible management system.
Being a responsibly sourced supplier, we do not mine the gemstones ourselves. We have privileged relationships with our mine partners, both large-scale and, in the future, artisanal. Having our headquarters, and cutting center in the capital of Antananarivo allows us to centralize our resources. Nonetheless, to insure that our values are respected in the areas we do not supervise ourselves, we established a system where people can directly address their complaints.
i. General issues of the colored gemstones mining industry.
Most of the colored gemstones worldwide are mined via artisanal small scale mining (ASM). Depending on the country where the gemstones are mined, there may be dangers associated with the activity.
ii. Local issues of the supply chain within Madagascar.
Madagascar is a region where ASM presents itself with numerous human rights issues. There you can witness various human rights issues such as shaft collapsing, theft, suffocation, child and forced labor.
i. Figure out what is realistically possible to do locally.
For this reason, we made the choice to collaborate with industrial suppliers. Indeed, our primary focus is collaborating with suppliers who guarantee fundamental human rights. This includes providing safe working conditions, fair wages, and prohibiting child labor and exploitation. Compliance with these principles is mandatory for all partnerships.
ii. Design incentives to mitigate the problems in a step-by-step approach over time.
We require that all mining partners:
Maintain safe and equitable working environments.
Strictly prohibit child labor and forced exploitation.
Provide fair compensation and respect worker dignity.
Overtime, we plan to implement and coordinate outreach programs to organize ASM miners into cooperatives. This will allow us to help local communities by providing them with tools to mine in safer conditions, and to learn about the value of their findings.
Transparency is critical in building trust. We work exclusively with suppliers committed to responsible sourcing and able to document the journey of each gemstone from its origin to market. A responsible supply chain demands rigorous oversight and flexibility.
To maintain our standards, we:
- Regularly assess supplier compliance with human rights and sustainability benchmarks.
- Conduct audits and inspections to verify adherence to our protocols.
- Adapt and refine sourcing practices based on the latest ethical and environmental standards.
In the future, we want to go beyond and perform third party audits at every step of our supply chain.
After evaluating our progress and tracking our initiatives over time, we remain committed to identifying challenges and finding effective solutions. We will regularly share our journey and insights in our journal, documenting our efforts in responsible sourcing and gemstone cutting.
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