Friday Seminar on 10 April 2026

Zeina Moneer: Beyond Compliance: Lessons Learned from the implementation of the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This seminar examines the implementation of the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI) in North and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a focus on the governance, political, and structural challenges shaping mineral traceability efforts in conflict-affected regions. Drawing on qualitative research based on an ethnographic literature review and documentary analysis, the study highlights that conflict minerals in Kivu cannot be understood solely as a technical issue of tagging, tracking, or regulating mineral flows. Rather, they are embedded in complex political, legal, and socio-economic dynamics characteristic of post-conflict settings. The seminar will explore how the implementation of ITSCI faces significant barriers linked to legal pluralism, state fragility, elite capture, and power asymmetries between local and transnational actors. These challenges underscore the limitations of traceability systems when broader governance and institutional constraints remain unaddressed. It will further discuss the need for wider institutional and legal reforms, including clearer allocation of roles among stakeholders, strengthened accountability mechanisms to address corruption and rent-seeking practices, and enhanced regional coordination. In particular, mechanisms for regulatory harmonization, cross-border monitoring, and information sharing are critical to improving the effectiveness of traceability and compliance systems such as ITSCI.

Blessing Duniya: Bonding Social Capital as a Gendered Pathway to Women’s Economic Empowerment: Evidence from Zaria, Nigeria

Blessing explores how women engage in bonding social capital to empower themselves, become self-reliance, reduce poverty and also gain agency in the ruins of patriarchal and structural inequality, economic marginalization driven by restrictive socio‑cultural and religious norms that limit access to education, credit, and formal employment. Focusing on economic empowerment through self-help saving groups.

If you are in Uppsala, please join in ENG3-2028, Engelska Parken, Thunbergsvägen 3H, Uppsala. If not, join us on Zoom: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/62164967657

Welcome all!!!