Geneva Peace Week
- info@gpplatform.ch
-
Geneva Peacebuilding Platform Foundation
C/O DCAF, Maison de la Paix,
Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2E,
1202, Geneva, Switzerland
"Harnessing the economy for peace" is a community curation initiative of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. In 2020, it culminated in the Global Town Hall Meeting on this topic on 5 November 2020 at Geneva Peace Week 2020.
The confluence of COVID19 with multiple other man-made or natural disasters are fostering ever deeper economic crises in ever more countries. At the same time, geo-strategic shifts are shaping competitive dynamics between market systems not seen since the Cold War. In the face of these rapid transformations, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform convened a discussion about harnessing market forces for peace and asks if and how corporations should step up their game to ensure for-profit investments also play a bigger role in generating social benefits and inclusive economic growth.
These reflections stand on the foundations of research and policy work that has grown in various constituencies over the last three decades. These include, for instance, international policy work and local activities in the fields of business and human rights, business and peace, trade for peace, or peace entrepreneurship as well as corporate practice in crises management, peacebuilding and community dialogue. At the same time, some investors will no longer place their money into firms that pollute the environment, produce arms or fail to have broader social impact. Yet when looking at these foundations, a landscape of sectoral specializations and professional silos emerges that appears to be 'unfit' for purpose to address the economic challenges in an era of great transformation.
GPP initiated a cross-cutting exchange on "Harnessing the economy for peace" in order to encourage the research and policy community in Geneva and beyond to step out of their silos and explore new policy connections across institutions and sectors. The exchanges build on ten event submissions to GPW20 on economic issues that could not be processed as individual events but were taken forward as a joint conversation. By bringing together the substantive inputs proposed by several session organisers this exchange aimed to share information about innovative practices and research findings, to gather the elements for a prospective policy agenda and to shape ideas for cross-cutting community curation in 2021.
BRIEFING 1 - Monday, 19 October 2020, 15.00-16.30
Harnessing the economy for peace: Responses to the new strategic landscape
BRIEFING 2 - Tuesday, 20 October 2020, 15.00-16.30
Business-led peacebuilding revisited: What's next in the policy agenda?
BRIEFING 3 – Monday, 26 October 2020, 15.00-16.30
Entrepreneurship for peace: The role of start-ups and female leadership in economic transformation
BRIEFING 4 - Tuesday, 27 October 2020, 15.00-16.30.
Trade for Peace: Pathways from aid to trade and employment
The GPW20 GLOBAL TOWN HALL MEETING
Thursday, 5 November, 15.00-16.45
Harnessing the economy for peace: A New Vision for Peacemaking
Monday, 19 October 2020, 15.00-16.30
Co-convened by United States Institute of Peace, USA; Brot für die Welt, Germany.
This briefing kicks off the exchanges on the GPW20 track "Harnessing the economy for peace". It focuses on the systemic level and the changes in the broader strategic landscape that are affecting many investment environments, including through the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative and associated infrastructure investments. The briefing aims to explore the characteristics of these trends and the spectrum of risks involved; and it also asks what the peacebuilding community can do to assist corporations, communities and governments to better address the risks generated by them. The session features two presentations and an interactive online discussion in order to gather the elements for a prospective policy agenda and relevant partnership arrangements.
Speakers
Co-Moderators
Tuesday, 20 October 2020, 15.00-16.30
Co-convened by International Alert, UK; CDA Collaborative Learning, USA; Creative Alternatives Now (CAN), Kenya; Centre for Critical Inquiry into Society and Culture (CCISC), Aston University, UK and the Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt), Germany.
This briefing focuses on the roles of corporations and business leaders as peacebuilders. What have we learned over the last two decades? What expectations are realistic? What's next in the policy agenda on business and peace?
Revisiting business for peace: Old challenges new opportunities
A view from the field: Business-led peacebuilding in Somalia
Moderator
Monday, 26 October 2020, 15.00-16.30
Co-convened by Founder of Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors International, Uppsala Rotary Peace Center, and SaferGlobe
This briefing exchanges experience of pathways to strengthen entrepreneurship as a contribution to economic transformation of post-conflict communities. It will present both personal experiences and know-how of practice leaders in this field and reflect on the needs to enable start-ups and leadership in complex post-conflict realities.
Speakers
Moderator
Tuesday, 27 October 2020, 15.00-16.30
Co-convened by UN Working Group on Business for Peace; Accessions Divisions, World Trade Organization; and Institute for Economics & Peace
This session discusses how economic growth and development are fundamental elements for peace and security. In particular, it will discuss quantitative approaches to analysing the relationship between peace and economics, the importance of the UN business for peace initiative for awareness raising, the incorporation of companies, and in highlighting national peacebuilding priorities, and how the concept of trade for peace provides a pathway for economic growth and development for those in the WTO accession process.
Speakers
Moderator
GPW Global Town Hall Meeting - Harnessing the economy for peace: Elements for a new policy agenda
Thursday, 5 November, 15.00-16.45
This session draws together the discussions of four briefings held prior to GPW in a 'town-all' style digital event with a forward looking forward to gathering the elements for a prospective policy agenda and ideas for a collaborative exchange in 2021
The confluence of COVID19 with multiple other man-made or natural disasters are fostering ever deeper economic crises in ever more countries. At the same time, geo-strategic shifts are shaping competitive dynamics between market systems not seen since the Cold War. In the face of these rapid transformations, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform convenes a discussion about harnessing market forces for peace and asks if and how corporations should step up their game to ensure for-profit investments also play a bigger role in generating social benefits and inclusive economic growth.
These reflections stand on the foundations of research and policy work that has grown in various constituencies over the last three decades. These include, for instance, international policy work and local activities in the fields of business and human rights, business and peace, trade for peace, or peace entrepreneurship as well as corporate practice in crises management, peacebuilding and community dialogue. At the same time, some investors will no longer place their money into firms that pollute the environment, produce arms or fail to have broader social impact. Yet when looking at these foundations, a landscape of sectoral specializations and professional silos emerges that appears to be 'unfit' for purpose to address the economic challenges in an era of great transformation.
GPP initiates a cross-cutting exchange on "Harnessing the economy for peace" in order to encourage the research and policy community in Geneva and beyond to step out of their silos and explore new policy connections across institutions and sectors. The exchanges build on ten event submissions to GPW20 on economic issues that could not be processed as individual events but are taken forward as a joint conversation.
The GPW Global Town Hall Meeting is moderated by Dr Achim Wennmann of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform.