CAFOD, the official overseas aid agency of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, has been working in DRC since 1994. We are non-operational, working predominantly though not exclusively through the humanitarian and development departments of the local Catholic Church. Our initial involvement in DRC was predominantly humanitarian, following the Rwandan genocide and the civil strife in Eastern DRC that came in its aftermath. In the late 1990’s we opened a Great Lakes regional office in Kinshasa and began to work more with national structures of the Church (e.g. Caritas Congo, national Justice and Peace Commission) and extended our work to nine of the 47 Catholic dioceses in DRC. We continue to remain focused in the East (N & S Kivu, Ituri) though much more of our work is now longer-term recovery and rehabilitation. For example, we have supported the programmes of the Justice & Peace department of the Catholic church in South Kivu, establishing “listening rooms” to provide support and counselling to victims of rape. The support extends to the whole community, to address the issues of stigmatisation and rejection. We also support a programme of participatory governance in S Kivu, aimed at improving the ability of communities to hold local government to account.

Since 2005 we have been working with both the Church and a local civil society organisation in Ituri on the issue of gold mining. A multi-national company (Anglo Gold Ashanti) has been granted a concession to open an industrial-scale mine at Mongbwalu which will have a significant impact on the local community, many of whom currently depend on informal (artisanal) mining for their livelihoods. The Church there was particularly concerned about what would happen to the artisanal miners as well as the wider community: land, water resources, forestry resources etc are all; at risk of being harmed by the mining venture. The community has formed a committee which has been able to engage with the AGA and a regular dialogue now occurs between the key stakeholders. Mining has not yet commenced and perhaps the major challenges for the community still lie ahead.