Economic development is an important basis for peace and the actors in this field are numerous and diverse. However, economic development does not automatically bring peace. The resources and investments of private economic actors that are brought into a conflict environment often become part of the conflict. If a local context is also characterized by fragility, there is a risk of a violent escalation of competition for resources. To avoid this, unconventional approaches by economic actors in cooperation with peacebuilding actors are needed. Only in this way can the “development-peace link” function sustainably.

On the occasion of the publication of the joint CDA / International Alert / FriEnt Dossier “Business and Peace: It Takes Two to Tango”, FriEnt invited about thirty experts from academia, German and international peacebuilding and development organisations to two online events to discuss and further develop central issues raised in the dossier. While the first event in February 2021 was dedicated to the peacebuilding potential of medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs), (you can find the synthesis here) the second one in March 2021 looked more closely at multi- / transnational companies (MNCs / TNCs) and measures, standards and principles to influence their behaviour for peacebuilding. Ben Miller, one of the authors of the dossier, gave an introduction; Hannah Peters (Swedwatch), Evelyn Dietsche (swisspeace), Sabine Dorlöchter-Sulser (Misereor) and Dominik Balthasar (KfW) then kicked off the discussion with comments from their areas of experience. This briefing is a synthesis of the presentations and discussions in this second workshop.