15 Actions for Businesses Operating in Conflict Zones

15 Actions for businesses operating in conflict zones 

With two billion people — a quarter of humanity — living in places affected by conflict, many companies find themselves operating in conflict zones. 

If your company is operating in in conflict zone, here are 15 actions to consider:

1. Conduct enhanced human rights due diligence, including conflict analysis to understand the interaction between company operations and conflict contexts. Then act plan and implement all activities to avoid negative impacts on conflict and maximize positive impacts on the organization, staff and society
    
2. Align internal strategies, policies and operations with international frameworks — including the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact
    
3. Ensure sufficient security protection for employees
    
4. Understand, address and engage key drivers of conflict by working with existing peace operations, programmes and partnerships and supporting innovative ways to address conflict drivers
    
5. Adopt hiring and workplace policies that cut across ethnic, religious or racial divides
    
6. Develop policies on corruption and human rights issues 
    
7. Develop a rigorous supply chain management system to assess and monitor if and how suppliers obtain resources and raw materials
    
8. Employ terms in contractual relationships that commit the other party to not doing business with any supplier participating in, funding or profiting from armed conflict 
    
9. Implement revenue transparency measures to decrease the potential for revenue capture and rent-seeking behavior, as well as the potential financing of armed conflict
    
10. Undertake due diligence when hiring private or public security services
     
11. Invest in training for staff around the issues of conflict resolution, consensus building and the facilitation of community meetings 
     
12. Provide support to peace negotiations, good governance programmes, special courts and tribunals that support reconciliation within communities
     
13. Address community grievances and disputes constructively through dialogue and by developing grievance and dispute settlement mechanisms 
     
14. Establish strategic social investment programmes as a component of local stakeholder engagement and consultation, and apply the same rigor in developing social investment strategies as in other aspects of business operations
     
15. Work in partnership with reputable third parties who hold relevant local expertise and skills, including conflict analysis, mediation and arbitration
    
     

More UN Global Compact and partner resources:

• Navigating Crises in a Complex World (UNGC webinar)
• Engaging Companies in Manmade Disasters Toolkit (CBi)
• Advancing the SDGs by Supporting Peace: How Business Can Contribute
• Guiding on Responsible Business and Investors in High Risk Areas
• What Stakeholders Can Do to Scale Up Business Action and Investment in High-Risk Areas
• Private Sector Peacebuilding (UN PBSO, One Earth Future, Peace Nexus, UNGC)