Business

Building strong socio-economic foundations and promoting economic development is one of the major elements of strategic peacebuilding. Since 1999 we have been working with business people from both conflict zones and multinational corporations to help them contribute to the creation of a stable political climate. Currently we focus on three areas of business:

	Conflict-sensitivity for multinational companies – Alert has worked with multinationals to develop a set of tools for companies to begin thinking more creatively about understanding and minimising conflict risk in their operations.
	Domestic enterprises building peace – Alert works to highlight and promote ways in which local business actors can contribute to peace processes, building on their particular strengths and opportunities. We also support local businesses in building peace in their own countries and in cross-border conflicts.
	Generating economic opportunities, promoting peace – Our latest project seeks to better align efforts by the international community to generate local economic opportunities in conflict-prone and conflict-affected countries with peacebuilding priorities.

We also work with business communities, civil society, and researchers in a number of countries to address the links between economic activities and conflict. Click on the links to find out more about this work in the South Caucasus, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Colombia and Sao Tome & Principe.


Business and peacebuilding

Increasing international attention on different economic dimensions of violent conflict has led both to greater understanding of the different types of private sector behaviour and actors involved, and to some important public policy initiatives and emerging tools for companies. At the same time, local entrepreneurs in a variety of conflict zones have experimented with contributing to peace. Our work in conflict regions around the world has shown that business practice continues to be a driver of conflict, but also that, if they make the right decisions, businesses have the potential to play an important role in building lasting peace.

Our findings and analysis is fed into advocacy work at local and global levels with businesses, governments, international institutions and civil society in order to formulate policy and develop practical guidelines to ensure that businesses avoid ‘doing harm’, and play a positive role towards building peace.

Our work involves:

• Research with partners from the business community and civil society in conflict zones to develop an understanding of best practice
  
• Collecting and disseminating good practice and lessons learned from business-led peacebuilding initiatives around the world
  
• Making policy recommendations to companies at headquarter level, governments and multilateral organisations
  
• Monitoring the implementation of local and international policies that impact on business and conflict
  
• Encouraging and supporting local entrepreneurs in conflict zones to help them play a part in building peace

For more information contact Diana Klein

To view our organisational statement on how we work with the private sector please click here

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Last updated: June 2006