Upcoming: Workshop on Investing in Peace in Switzerland

From Earth stewardship comes food security. And food security is one important foundation for peace. With peace comes prosperity and with prosperity business opportunities abound.

Surely our best investments are those that lay these foundations for peace?
This workshop explores how the business of business can evolve towards Earth stewardship to enable peace and how we can invest in new ways.

The workshop is part of the annual Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (2013, 2014, 2015) which seeks to connect experts and practitioners across disciplines (‘horizontal’) and hierarchies (‘vertical’) to create a shared understanding and vision for sustainable peace in the world’s drylands and degraded ecosystems, and to build the trust needed for effective collaboration on the ground and in ‘land-peace partnerships’. This can only be achieved with an inclusive, multi-stakeholder approach, including such diverse actors as business, political leadership, foreign donors, the development and security communities and the people of the drylands themselves. Not least, different religious groups need to peacefully work together. Creating a joint vision with all stakeholders encourages each school of thought, specialisation and hierarchy to contribute their best to a solution.

Read more on the Lives Land and Peace website.

Opinion: the biggest business opportunity on the planet is Peace

Stephen Hinton 2016
Photo: Maj-Lis Koivisto

What the business of business is has long been debated. Put simply, people might say businesses provide services that people need in a way that employs people and gives them wages so they can buy what they in turn need.

If that is the case, it isn’t working very well is it? Zero hours contracts, wages below minimum, and jobs outsourced all mean that people don’t have money in their pockets to buy the necessities. That depresses the market, reduces demand and that reduces business opportunities. And it looks as if people are stressed and depressed – even those with jobs and money. Could it be that business is actually missing what people actually want? Continue reading “Opinion: the biggest business opportunity on the planet is Peace”

Welcome to the dialogue!

We recognise that Peace is not simply the absence of war; it is a positive state that we as humans have a natural longing for. Peace also underpins prosperity. By promoting peace, individuals and organizations lay the foundations for prosperity.

We all need to do more. We, the initiating group,  aim to create mechanisms to invest in peace. Just now we are at the dialogue stage.