The implementation of Kimberley process certification scheme towards the export of blood diamond in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Diamond is a significant export commodity in the West African countries, especially Sierra Leone due to its massive amounts of resources and immense influence towards the economy, politic, and social development. However, the emergence of blood diamond or illegal diamond from West African countries starting to deteriorate the diamond market and alter the country’s condition with the rising amount of its sale, low production, and imbalance quantity in production and export sale. By the pressure of international community, Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is established with the purpose to eradicate and control the flow of blood diamond. KPCS started to be implemented in Sierra Leone since 2003. KPCS will be mainly discussed in the thesis as the main regulator in Sierra Leone in decreasing the amount of blood diamond or increasing the amount of legal diamond by the export sector between the years of 2003 and 2006. A triangulation of data between the official government, peer-review, and KPCS itself will be used in investigating the development of the export sector in Sierra Leone. International regime and cooperative game theory will also be used to elaborate the process of establishment of the KPCS before 2003. This thesis is elaborating the implementation of KPCS approaches in eliminating blood diamond in Sierra Leone market and furthermore to identify the development of the implemented regulations on influencing the export of blood diamond in the country. Thus, this thesis found that the implementation of KPCS in Sierra Leone is assuredly generating positive outcome on the export sector which demonstrates a growing tendency in the export and production market, increasing number of legal diamond sale, and proportionate statistical sum independent peer review