Business Actors in Mediation Processes

This Guidance Note on Business actors in peace processes provides mediators with an overview of different possibilities of how to include business actors in mediation processes, assessing the respective potentials and limitations. Businesspeople are often seen as pragmatic actors with an interest in peace per se, without any pre-conditions attached to it. Nevertheless, some business actors may benefit from the war economy and therefore be initially opposed to a peace process. Mediators need to assess the logic and changing behavior of old and new economic actors as well as the interests and vulnerabilities of local and international business actors in the conflict area. Business actors can contribute to peace processes by influencing the parties, mobilizing the wider community, providing financial or logistical support to the process, acting as experts by bringing knowledge to the process, monitoring the implementation of the peace agreement, and exploring ways to create jobs.