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CSR in Conflict and Post-Conflict Environments: from Risk Management to Value Creation

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CSR in Conflict and Post-Conflict Environments: from Risk Management to Value Creation CSR in conflict and post-conflict environments: from risk management to value creation Maria Prandi and Josep M. Lozano (Eds.) CSR in conflict and post-conflict environments: from risk management to value creation CSR in conflict and post-conflict environments: from risk management to value creation Maria Prandi and Josep M. Lozano (Eds.) Design: Lucas Wainer Cover: Fotolia Edition: School for a Culture of Peace (UAB) / Institute for Social Innovation (ESADE) ISBN: 978-84-615-5634-2 Legal Deposit: B.43.935-2010 Index Introduction 9 Part One: Building peace through business 15 From armed conflicts to peace-building 17 Maria Prandi, Head of the Business and Human Rights Programme, School for a Culture of Peace (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) Corporate social responsibility in contexts of conflict and post-conflict: From risk management to creation value 35 Maria Prandi, Head of the Business and Human Rights Programme, School for a Culture of Peace (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona) Part Two: The economic dimension of peace 69 The value of peace to the economy 71 Camilla Schippa. Senior Vice President, Global Peace Index, Sidney Economic dimensions of peace processes: The private sector as a strategic partner for peacemaking 79 Achim Wennmann. Researcher, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuidling (CCDP) Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva Private sector participation in peace-building: Tacking stock and identifying some lessons 89 Angelika Rettberg. Associate Professor, Director of the Research Program on Peacebuilding, and chair of the Political Science Department at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Part Three: Operating in complex environments 99 Companies, peace-building and human rights. Colombia: The best and worst of examples 101 Angela Rivas, Coordinator, Department of the Business Sector, Conflict and Peace-Building, Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP), Bogotá Companies as actors in post-war reconstruction 115 Carlos Fernández, Special Assistant at the United Nations Office in Santo Domingo Aitor Pérez, economist specialising in consulting for NGOs Gorillas and genocide: Tourism and peacebuilding in Rwanda 123 Rina M. Alluri. Researcher for the Business & Peace programme at swisspeace, Bern and PhD Candidate in the NCCR North-South Programme. The role of oil mayors in supporting sustainable peace and development in Nigeria: the case of Royal Dutch Shell 133 Esther Henchen, PhD candidate in Management Sciences (ESADE) and MSc in Development Management (LSE) Part Four: Experiences and lessons learned from companies 147 Grupo ÉXITO and its care of the vulnerable population in Colombia 149 Luz Angela Zuluaga Giraldo, Care for the Vulnerable Population, Social Responsibility, Almacenes Exito S.A., Medellin ‘MI LLAVE’, a social integration initiative to generate productive opportunities 153 Jorge Silva Luján, General Manager of Microsoft Colombia, Bogotá Heineken’s healthcare provisions in complex environments 157 Katinca C. van Cranenburgh, Manager Heineken International Health Affairs and Visiting Scholar ESADE Daniel Arenas, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences- Universitat Ramon Llull and Head of Research of the Institute for Social Innovation (Esade) List of authors 165 7 Introduction Introduction The book presented here closes a trilogy that seeks to identify, evaluate and promote the role of companies with regard to the three founding pillars of the United Nations: human rights, development and peace-building. The book A Practical Handbook on Business and Human Rights was published in 2006. Later, in 2009, a reflection on companies’ potential to combat poverty on a worldwide scale was published in the book Can Companies Contribute to the Millennium Development Goals? Keys for Understanding and Acting. Now, through this volume, we are offering a survey of the different approaches taken by the private sector towards peace-building in countries in conflict and post-conflict. This reflection is actually related to an extremely timely question today: the role of non-state actors in world governance. This publication aims to debate whether this role is a risk or an opportunity, and for whom. The first idea that emerges from this joint reflection is that each of these three spheres – human rights, development and peace – is interconnected, especially in so-called complex settings, and that this connection should be intrinsically reflected in corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies, not only in their content but also in how they are constructed. Indeed, in a country in the midst of post- war reconstruction, with major physical destruction coupled with serious social fractures, the sum of each of these elements is what gives CSR policy an integrated perspective. Conversely, the lack of one of these ingredients in CSR policies clearly jeopardises advances in the other spheres. Another of the reflections prompted by this book is that CSR cannot be disassociated from the context in which it operates; rather it should reflect and respond to the challenges (human, technological, environmental, etc.) in the company’s immediate setting, that is, on a local scale, which are actually linked to the challenges facing humanity globally. Many of the business operations and direct foreign investments worldwide take places in countries in the midst of conflict or post-conflict. Broadly speaking, these countries may be appealing to business in several respects, such as the exploitation of natural resources, large markets or beneficial production costs, among others. Therefore, despite the fact that they are complex and often insecure settings, they have attracted companies operating worldwide or have some kind of national business community that feeds the global supply chains, from either the formal or informal economy. In some cases and over time, the contribution of this private capital is equivalent to or higher than the aid coming from international donors, so its weight in the country’s economy, on both micro and macro level, is crucially important. However, as shown by the different authors, the orientation or perspective of both the company and its CSR policy in these fragile settings can lay the groundwork for the consolidation of peace, or to the contrary, they can contribute to rekindling the causes of the conflict. 9 CSR in conflict and post-conflict environments:from risk management to value creation On the other hand, there has traditionally been a belief in the contributions of donor countries and aid programmes to the public sector in a country’s reconstruction. However, some theoreticians claim that more and more governments of developing countries in post-conflict situations are calling on a greater role for trade and a lesser role for international aid, arguing further that the world economic crisis is lowering the amount of funds earmarked for international aid. In this way, the statistical model is giving way to hybrid development models in which certain emerging countries (Brazil and China) are beginning to invest at levels similar to the large international aid agencies, especially in the mining and hydrocarbon sectors, thus reflecting their own model of development. This phenomenon thus attaches rising importance to the inclusion of the peace-building perspective in CSR policies. In order for a company to contribute to peace, it must adopt what has been called in humanitarian jargon a “conflict sensitivity” perspective. This means that, based on an analysis of the conflict, the company must understand and anticipate its interaction with the context in an effort to avoid negative impacts and maximise positive ones in the process of peace-building. Through the “Do No Harm” theory, companies must also be capable of fostering “connectors”, that is, elements that lower tension, and minimise “dividers”, that is, those that potentially increase the violence within their area of influence. Being conflict sensitive does not necessarily mean that the company should get involved in peace-building actions, but it does mean that at the very least it should not negatively impact the conflict or the process of consolidating peace. Today many companies have adopted human rights policies and are accountable for them, yet few still take into account the specificity of operating in these contexts in their CSR policies. However, as this book demonstrates, there are significant experiences of companies that are participating in peace-building in numerous countries, thus playing an increasingly important role in issues that affect global governance. The role of private enterprise as an actor in armed conflicts has been intensely studied and has been the subject of heated controversy in recent decades. Other more recent currents identify and describe companies’ potential role in peace- building. National and international companies have developed peace-building policies by supporting the generation of entrepreneurship and job opportunities for vulnerable populations, building bridges among communities, actively supporting peace negotiations or adapting their products to the setting. Without getting into an in-depth analysis of the pros and cons of this participation, this publication spotlights the factors in sustainable CSR during conflict and post-conflict, and it offers specific guidelines for companies that want to adopt a strategic vision in this sphere. The book is divided into four parts. Part One contains an overview of armed conflicts today, their
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