In recent years, according to the Erasmus University Rotterdam’s Ben Radley, Western advocacy groups have achieved unprecedented success in mobilising Europeans and North Americans behind a ‘conflict minerals’ campaign to help end the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
 
Radley says the advocacy groups have also attracted strong criticism, both internationally and in the DRC, for the perceived negative impact of their work.
 
He notes that one of the most striking elements during the making of the film was the difficulty of finding Congolese groups in rural and peri-urban areas who knew about and supported the “conflict minerals” campaign.
 
It is important not to conflate the work of all DRC-focused advocacy organisations under the same umbrella. But central to the success of the “conflict minerals” campaign was the emergence of a dominant narrative that placed Western consumers at the heart of the solution.
 
To read the article titled, “The problem with Western activists trying to do good in Africa,” click here.