The bodies that write the rules, and the ones that check them.

A voluntary intergovernmental partnership founded in 2005 that helps member governments turn mining into sustainable development through better laws, policies and regulations. Its Secretariat has been hosted by IISD since October 2015 and is core-funded by Canada. Its flagship Mining Policy Framework (ratified 2010, updated 2023) carries a dedicated artisanal and small-scale mining pillar, and in November 2025 the IGF launched the Global Coalition for Action on ASGM with the World Bank and the World Gold Council to support formalisation and tackle illicit gold flows. Profiled in depth below.

Member count self-reported (86 per IGF; some IGF materials say “more than 85”).

An independent Canadian sustainable-development think tank founded in 1990, headquartered in Winnipeg with offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Geneva and New York. Since October 2015 it has hosted the Secretariat of the IGF and, through it, produces government guidance on the Mining Policy Framework, artisanal and small-scale mining, environmental management and critical energy-transition minerals. It also runs the Earth Negotiations Bulletin reporting service.

An independent policy research institute founded in 1971 by economist Barbara Ward. It convened the landmark Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development project (2000-2002) for the WBCSD, which produced the Breaking New Ground report, and later ran multi-stakeholder action dialogues on artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Ghana (2016) and Tanzania (2017-2018). It authored Global Trends in ASM (2018) for the IGF, the source of the widely cited figure that ASM supplies about 20% of the world’s gold. Its ASM dialogue programme has been quiet since 2018.

MMSD and dialogue facts strong; the dormancy since 2018 is inferred from the absence of later outputs.

An independent non-profit formed in 2013 from the merger of the Revenue Watch Institute and the Natural Resource Charter, with roots in the Open Society Institute’s 2002 Caspian Revenue Watch. It works on the governance of oil, gas and minerals in resource-rich countries including DRC, Ghana, Guinea and Peru, funded by foundations such as Open Society, Ford and Hewlett. Gold enters its work as one mineral within a broad extractives-transparency mandate.

Extractives-general; gold is not a standalone NRGI programme.