ABSTRACT
Kady and Hamado will share key findings from IMPACT’s newest report, Financing the Unbanked: How Community Savings Groups Can Create Pathways for Legal Artisanal Gold in Burkina Faso, which examined how artisanal gold miners and traders are stuck in a cycle of illegality, without access to formal financial institutions, leaving them dependent on informal and predatory lenders. They’ll highlight lessons learned from research and IMPACT’s own financial inclusion projects in the artisanal gold sector which have found that any efforts to introduce artisanal gold mining communities to formal and legal trade must be accompanied with access to financing, such as through community savings groups which can serve as an effective first entry-point for financial inclusion and formalization.
BIOGRAPHY
Kady Seguin is Policy and Research Director at IMPACT. In this role, she leads and ensures IMPACT’s research activities and policy engagement contribute to the organization’s mission. This includes leading IMPACT’s research process from conceptual stage through to publication and dissemination, as well as being responsible for representing IMPACT in a variety of national and international policy-related forums related to natural resource management.
Hamado Derra is IMPACT’s Focal Point in Burkina Faso. He coordinates IMPACT’s activities across the country through the Foundations for Peace project which aims to increase financial inclusion in artisanal gold mining communities and incentivize legal trade. Hamado is the liaison with policymakers and stakeholders, supporting local authorities to build capacity to implement enforcement strategies to tackle illicit trade.