GPPlatform

This paper develops an action framework for conflict prevention in the context of large-scale business investments in fragile environments. The current intensification of mining activities, commercialisation of significant land areas, and undertaking of large infrastructure projects in fragile environments is leading to increased and often violent conflict at the local level. With development, peacebuilding and investment agendas at risk, there is a clear imperative for action. 

In order to develop a better understanding of the role of the trade community in contributing to the implementation of the “New Deal for engagement in fragile states”, the International Trade Centre, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, convened an exploratory and informal meeting on ‘conflict-sensitive trade’. The meeting focused on the potential peacebuilding contribution of business and trade in areas such as public procurement, value chain management, Aid-for-Trade initiatives and country-specific experiences with trade development in fragile and conflict-affected areas, especially in the focus countries of the New Deal Implementation and other g7+ member countries.

This paper explores the role of private mediation actors in preventive diplomacy. It highlights that private mediation actors possess many advantages in comparison to formal actors, especially in terms of good analysis and network capacities, confidentiality of dialogues, access to a wider set of actors, and connections to local actors through long-standing engagements. The paper also points to the emerging practice in the fields of armed violence reduction, peace mediation, and human rights protection that, if more widely applied, would represent a tremendous opportunity to strengthen preventive diplomacy. The report concludes by highlighting the underlying challenge for preventive diplomacy of finding the right balance between international demands for stabilization and local demands for political space to drive transformative change.