Title: The Narrative of Conflict Minerals: An Exploration of Sexual Gender-Based Violence and Socioeconomic Impacts of the Dodd-Frank Act in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Author/Institution: Sara Engström – Dalarna University
Publication Year: 2017
Sara Engström’s thesis explores the unintended consequences of the Dodd-Frank Act’s Section 1502, which required U.S. companies to disclose the use of conflict minerals in their supply chains. Through field-based research in eastern DRC, she examines how the legislation reshaped local economies and conflict dynamics. Engström highlights that while the act was designed to weaken armed groups’ financing, it often led to the closure of artisanal mining sites and the marginalization of local miners. Crucially, she shows how these disruptions deepened socioeconomic vulnerabilities and intersected with sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), as women and girls bore disproportionate burdens when livelihoods were lost.
A key contribution of Engström’s research lies in linking the macro-level effects of international legislation to the micro-level realities of Congolese communities. She demonstrates that the Dodd-Frank Act, by constraining legal mineral markets, inadvertently pushed mining into informal and clandestine channels where abuses—including forced labor and sexual exploitation—were harder to monitor or prevent. Her work maps out how governance gaps, limited economic alternatives, and entrenched power asymmetries amplified risks for women, while failing to dismantle the financial structures of armed groups as effectively as intended.
The study is highly relevant to current debates on responsible sourcing and social license in critical minerals supply chains. As highlighted in recent news about U.S.–DRC–Rwanda partnerships and global rare earth procurement, Engström’s findings remind policymakers that compliance measures must be paired with local capacity-building and gender-sensitive protections. Without addressing the intersection of economic exclusion and violence, well-intentioned global frameworks risk perpetuating harm. This analysis strengthens the case for integrating human rights safeguards and community-centered development alongside traceability systems to ensure that supply chain security does not come at the expense of social justice in resource-dependent regions.