Artisanal gold mining activity (oro legal) performance evaluation : final report

The Oro Legal (Legal Gold) Activity worked to improve the capacity of the government, local communities, and the private sector to address the informality of artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and reduce and reverse its environmental impacts in 22 municipalities in two departments of Colombia (Antioquia and Chocó). The Activity aimed to i) strengthen governmental capacity to facilitate compliance with mining regulations; ii) increase the participation of artisanal mining associations and community groups in mining formalization; iii) provide training and technical assistance to enable miners to formalize their operations; iv) rehabilitate areas that had been degraded by mining; v) identify alternative income-generating activities; and vi) improve the quality of potable water in targeted areas.

This evaluation examines whether the achievements of the intervention are perceived as effective and impactful, identifies the factors that influenced its performance, and determines the contextual factors that affect the sustainability of the results, with a specific focus on responding to the six evaluation questions. The evaluation uses mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) complemented by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools and informed by a Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach throughout. The qualitative portion of the methodology combined a technique drawn from the phenomenology of perception with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, drawing on semi-structured interviews with a range of actors involved in the Activity. The quantitative approach included descriptive statistics, spatial econometrics, multiple correspondence analysis, grouping of observations, and text mining from beneficiary surveys and OL?s Monitor system.

This evaluation found that beneficiaries have a high level of satisfaction with OL, highlight its strengths, and perceive its interventions as relevant to the context and needs of the targeted territories. However, the evaluation also identified a series of challenges and opportunities for improving implementation, design, and operation of this type of intervention. The evaluation proposes 43 recommendations, with 100 implementation measures to put these recommendations into action.