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NORGLOBAL-Norge - Global partner

Conflict of Interest? Business For Peace as Development Aid in Volatile Environments

Alternative title: Business for Peace: et alternativ til tradisjonell utviklingshjelp i konfliktsoner?

Awarded: NOK 5.0 mill.

This project sought to determine the conditions under which businesses can move beyond "doing no harm" in the fragile and conflict-affected societies where they work to deliver more tangible positive peace dividends. This four-year study of corporate peacebuilding explored initiatives across a range of contexts to evaluate risks, build scholarship and improve policy impact. We have seven key empirical findings of what successful firms do to help build peace and avoid unintended consequences in corporate peacebuilding: 1. Sound peace contributions by business are underpinned in a continuous cycle of monitoring and feedback between understanding how societies can become more peaceful, action, and strong analysis?from social and political impact assessment to follow-up evaluation. 2. 'Peace' and 'security' are not universally-defined concepts. Business actions for peace that are clear, concrete, done in partnership with local partners, and achievable are more likely to be seen as valuable by the local community. 3. Financial flows that might are minor for large firms can have a major distorting impact on local communities, and these types of risks and impacts should be included in social impact assessments. 4. Corporations should assume responsibility for the peace impact of their entire operational presence, assuring that their whole chain of suppliers and subcontractors is conflict-free as due diligence of supply chains is key to a comprehensive commitment in building more peaceful societies. 5. For the firm, two questions need to be asked and positively answered before it takes on peace and development activities: First, is there a will to conduct corporate peacebuilding by the CEO and Board of Directors? Second, is there internal knowledge and capacity available within the firm to plan and carry out a successful peacebuilding project? 6. Firms should incorporate peacebuilding best practice, including: Don't think of yourself as the savior of a community; Learn from and work with other peacebuilders in the area; Identify how your own unique skills can contribute to broader peace initiatives; and Recognize that the sum of peace initiatives may not necessarily equal societal peace. 7. Firms should define a clear red line for withdrawal in case situations deteriorate. It would enable a clearer pathway for withdrawal should it be necessary and it would also offer a clearer guideline to host governments, who will know what actions or policies the corporate sector (or at least its most progressive members) will not tolerate. This project delivered 13 academic articles on theoretical and case-based elements of this issue from fieldwork in South Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, Somaliland and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and delivered a final toolkit report to present our most important lessons learned. Designed for businesses, practitioners, scholars and others who are interested and engaged in corporate impact in such areas, this report provides an overview of the main lessons from a four-year study of corporate peacebuilding initiatives across a range of contexts. Its main findings are formulated as seven key questions which can help evaluate risks and improve impact.

The new 'Business for Peace' (B4P) paradigm promotes multinational corporations in conflict zones and fragile post-conflict environments as an alternative to traditional development aid, supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwe gian Agency for Development Cooperation. While B4P's positive impact through economic opening and Corporate Social Responsibility is assumed, emerging research suggests that corporate presence can instead exacerbate conflict dynamics in certain settings. It is essential to assess B4P's impact today, not only as B4P allocates substantial Norwegian (and international) funds to support corporate expansion into volatile environments, but because B4P is about to be standardized throughout all multilateral aid activities per the UN Global Compact B4P platform and the UN's 'Delivering As One' mandate. To understand how and where B4P can succeed, our core research question asks: how does international support of corporate activities in volatile environments inf luence political, economic, and social dynamics of peace and development? PRIO along with the Nordic Africa Institute (Sweden) will operationalize this question through two work packages: (1) investigating the business motivations and developmental logics underpinning the emergence of B4P; and (2) investigating the local impact of expanded corporate activities under B4P in volatile environments in four country cases: the DRC, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia. Case research will be executed together with local partner institutions, complementing our team's previous field experiences with new situated knowledge. A third work package translates insights from (1) and (2) into an aggregate analysis and toolkit for forward application by policymakers, academic s and engaged publics. A high-level reference group has been assembled from across academia, policymakers and the business community to encourage the production of findings that truly speak to engaged parties.

Funding scheme:

NORGLOBAL-Norge - Global partner