The potential is untapped for governments and donors to explore scaling up their engagement with the business community in the pursuit of more peaceful, just and inclusive societies. Recent high-level summitry has given new impetus to engage business in shaping and delivering the development agenda. However, African policy making has only just begun to explore how the high-growth ‘Africa rising’ phenomenon could be enhanced by leveraging the developmental impact of business activity. Moreover, considerable ambivalence remains among policymakers, donors and corporate strategists. An exploration of what drives greater engagement; what is involved in more explicit cross-sector cooperation in addressing barriers to greater peace and prosperity; and what ‘appropriate’ relationships would look like, is both necessary and timely.

About the author:
Dr Jolyon Ford is an associate of the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford. He has been a senior research consultant to the Institute for Security Studies since 2008. He is the author of Regulating Business for Peace (CUP, forthcoming) and the blog ‘Private Sector – Public World’. Before 2014, he led the Africa work of Oxford Analytica. Originally from Zimbabwe, he was educated at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Cambridge University and the Australian National University.

The ISS is grateful for support from the members of the ISS Partnership Forum: the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA.