The Diamond Development Initiative International has been awarded a grant from Cartier International, the famed jeweler and watchmaker.

The Cartier grant will focus mainly on the implementation of “Development Diamond Standards” for artisanally produced diamonds. In Sierra Leone, DDI International is working with local leaders and civil society to identify sites where diamonds are produced in ways that are environmentally sound, and where diggers receive a fair price, working under safe conditions.

The Cartier grant will also provide general support, assisting DDII in several projects now under way, including human rights training in Africa, and a major registration project in the Democratic Republic of Congo which is bringing more than 70,000 miners into the formal sector.

“I have just returned from a month in the Congo and I can say that Cartier’s support is not just a vote of support for our work, it is a solid example of how the concept of corporate social responsibility has expanded beyond the immediate corporate environment to a wider world of development possibilities,” said Dorothée Gizenga, DDII’s executive director, in a statement.

The Diamond Development Initiative recently received a grant from the JCK Industry Fund.

JCK