News

Corporate Peace: private sector strategies for conflict prevention, peacebuilding and sustainable development

London School of Economics, Tuesday 18th July, 2017

The potential of business to contribute to security, justice and development as part of peace and conflict initiatives is being increasingly recognised. Public-private partnerships are at the heart of agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals and peace processes in Latin America and Africa. There is also  growing practice and scholarly evidence of how business impacts transitions from conflict and state/peacebuilding efforts.

Yet international institutions such as the UN and the European Union have been slow to develop effective and systematic strategies for engaging and working with the private sector. From the perspective of business, there are gaps in knowledge and practical guidance about how, when and where to collaborate with government and civil society, in ways which go beyond the limits of corporate social responsibility or a business and human rights framework.

On July 18th, a roundtable is organised by LSE to examine research findings from the EU- funded ‘Whole of Society Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding ‘(WOSCAP) and other studies on partnerships and the business-peace nexus to explore the possibilities for both policy-makers and companies to work more constructively together for the benefit of both.

The aim of the roundtable is to bring together key stakeholders from public policy-making, the private sector and civil society to review the status quo relating to business engagement with peace, security and development and identify avenues for collaboration and innovation in policy, management strategies and academic research. 


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