UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION: TRAINING CERTIFICATION ON IMPACT INVESTMENT®

I'm happy to share that I’ve obtained a new certification: IMPACT INVESTMENT®. The course is organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIDO

The monitoring of investment activities along broadened dimensions of financial, social and environmental impacts is important so as to ascertain and augment the economic contribution of domestic and foreign direct investments in the host economy. Impact Investing is defined as investments made into companies, organizations and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.

I decided to explore the topic of Impact Investment because I consider it closely related to the challenges inherent in mining, especially in artisanal and small-scale ASM contexts. Impact Investment, with its focus on achieving a positive social and environmental impact along with a financial return, can be a promising strategy needed to address the pressures that characterize this sector.

In the current race for critical minerals, the pressure will increasingly affect mining communities in the affected localities, and the need for a sustainable energy transition could increase social inequality rather than reduce it.

In this context, it becomes critical to create shared value impact behind the useful life of the mine by optimizing the value chain. This means adopting a mining approach that sees the human value of miners at the center, demonstrating that the investment can create value by being people-centered in management and operations.

In this accelerated geoeconomic framework, I think it is crucial to explore and mature the opportunities that an Impact Investment can generate by dropping it into the ASM reality.

Impact investment has seen exponential levels of growth in recent years. There is a rising number of investors that prioritize positive impact over financial returns. But as far as the ASM sector is concerned, there are very few examples of investments as investors still lack the tools of understanding to get involved in untested business models.

Instead, I believe it is important to demonstrate how the power of an Impact Investment can transform an ASM mine into a productive life source with significant social and environmental effects that can turn its impacts into positive opportunities for all stakeholders in the value chain involved, from the affected community to the end consumer.

I realized that Impact Investing is a valuable tool to create opportunities for sectors that often have difficulty accessing financial capital by addressing social and/or environmental aspects, and there is nothing more centered than associating this concept with geological mining principles that have always taught me that human wealth is not about money  but about opportunity.

I thank UNIDO for providing me with a knowledge tool not only to explore the concept of IMPACT in terms of investment, but also as a professional education.

#VueltaMiningAttitude #Mining #ASM #Criticalminerals