We work with communities, decision-makers and business leaders to develop the competence, confidence and commitment to transform conflict and invest in peace.
Conflict exists all around us. Business Plan for Peace provides the skills and support to transform destructive conflict and build sustainable peace personally, locally, internationally.
Why? Because we know it’s possible.
We support people to develop the inner practices that make their work in the world far more effective. We work with communities, decision-makers and business leaders to develop competence, confidence and commitment to transform conflict and invest in peace.
It’s actually doable – and you can join us. We turn vision into action, drawing on decades of experience to pinpoint where change can happen.
1. Conflict Transformation Skills
We recognise the importance of inner work in making change in the world more effective. We promote the skills of conflict transformation and help them become known, valued and applied across sectors.
2. Innovative Investment
We bring together the private sector, local peacebuilders and specialists to invest in infrastructures for peace.
Building sustainable peace requires design, systematic plans, infrastructure, and investment.
In short, it requires a business plan. Until now the expertise of business and the private sector has only rarely been engaged.
What business can bring to the prevention of destructive conflict and the building of peace includes training, strategy, planning, real-time adaptation and learning, networks and investment.
What business can gain includes improved community relations, engagement in developing security, reduction of risks, insurance against physical dangers to staff and destruction to property, positive public perceptions of values, and employees solving the world’s greatest challenges.
We’re ambitious, based on a significant track record…
We’re the pioneers of what will become a huge trend, moving our money, our lives and our security away from the habit of war, towards a manifest commitment to prevent violent conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world.
We want to support you in being part of this dynamic trend. We’re the ones you’ve been waiting for, and we invite you to join us, partner with us, invest in us and be supported by us.
Every penny you entrust us with, will be a building block for a massive extension of peace throughout the world, and the education of every one of us in the skills to prevent and transform violent conflict and invest in peace. Partner with us and become the next example of business contributing to peace.
“What is going to shift the level of consciousness around the fundamental issues that humanity faces? The Mighty Heart.”
– Jeremy Gilley
“Sustainable peace requires design, infrastructure and investment. It needs a business plan.”
The Missing Peace
Our new report shows how the private sector can immediately contribute to the prevention of future conflict. Building peace has often been left to the UN, NGOs and local communities; these efforts are noble and demand great courage, but are grossly under-resourced. The expertise of business and the private sector has rarely been engaged – until now.
“The more that people can lead by their hearts, the more successful a company will be.”
– Angela Gallenz, H&M
Businesses can either opt to contribute to solutions and reduce violent conflict, or continue to contribute to harm.
In 2020, reported global military expenditure rose to almost $2 trillion, an increase of 2.6 per cent in world military spending from the previous year despite the overall economic cost of the pandemic. The global economic impact of violence was $14.4 trillion PPP in 2019, equivalent to 10.5 per cent of global GDP or $1,895 per person.
The number of countries experiencing protracted crises has doubled to 34 in the last six years. Since 2020, there have been over 39 countries with armed conflict.
These figures show where our global priorities lie and what the world invests in. In the context of the scale of this industry, it should not be surprising that resolvable differences are resulting in devastating wars and conflicts. This in turn causes the displacement of vast numbers of refugees, a huge and growing global impact of violence, and critical shortages of food and resources, bringing the spectre of widespread famine, and continued cycles of violence.
Current peacebuilding systems are underfunded, undervalued and struggling to be fit for purpose. 80 per cent of humanitarian needs are driven by conflict yet just one per cent of governmental foreign aid go towards conflict prevention.
In September 2017, Dr Scilla Elworthy published The Business Plan for Peace. The book shows how 25 tried and tested strategies for preventing war can be scaled up and extended over ten years to avoid violent conflict worldwide. Imagine a world where peaceful solutions are valued and invested in, rather than systems that contribute to violent conflict and war.
The private sector, global retailers, resource industries and global production are fully international – their chain of production and distribution spans the globe. Businesses can either opt to contribute to solutions and reduce violent conflict in the world or continue to contribute to harm and violence.
Business Plan for Peace is the growing movement of innovative investment in peacebuilding. Join us.
