In 2025, the Alliance for Peacebuilding launched the Building Peace Economies at Scale initiative to better link for-profit investments to peace process outcomes and advocate for policies and standards that benefit business and peace.
WHY
Since 2018, global violent conflict has been at record levels and rising, and conflict and violence are bad for businesses, costing the world economy more than $14 trillion a year. Stable, peaceful countries have stronger economic indicators, including higher economic output and foreign investment, stronger consumption, increased trade, more new businesses, and lower risk premiums. At the same time, the U.S. Government has drastically cut conflict prevention and reduction programs, and other bilateral donors are also dramatically reducing foreign assistance. As public funding retreats, the private and peacebuilding sectors must work together to build stable markets and communities.
Conflict and violence impose devastating costs on businesses across every sector, undermining profitability, operational continuity, and long-term investment viability. Supply chains are among the first casualties, as seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where persistent armed conflict has repeatedly disrupted mining operations and forced multinational corporations like Apple and Intel to conduct costly audits of their mineral supply chains to avoid association with conflict minerals, adding compliance burdens that cut directly into margins. Insurance and operational costs skyrocket in fragile environments, with countries paying war risk premiums that can increase shipping and logistics costs by as much as 300%, directly eroding profit margins. Conflict and violence traumatize and displace a company's workforce, leading to loss of productivity and retention, which is an irreplaceable loss of human capital, institutional knowledge, and operational capacity that no insurance payout can fully recover. Ultimately, conflict destroys the foundational conditions businesses depend on: the rule of law, functioning infrastructure, consumer purchasing power, and predictable governance.
We know companies that adopt conflict-sensitive practices achieve better returns on investment by reducing operational disruptions, lowering security costs, and maintaining their social license and capital, ultimately resulting in more peaceful and stable regions. In Nigeria's Niger Delta, multinational oil companies have invested in women entrepreneur programs spanning education, healthcare, and agriculture, demonstrating how corporate commitment to building economic opportunity in conflict-affected regions can create both business stability and community prosperity. In cocoa growing communities, Mondelez International's Cocoa Life program has invested in addressing root causes of child labor by diversifying farmer income, strengthening women's economic power through increased access to farming and financial training, and establishing Village Savings and Loan groups. By countering the poverty and economic instability that can lead to exploitative practices, the program demonstrates how companies can reduce systemic conflict drivers while simultaneously securing their supply chain and building more resilient, stable communities.
WHAT
The Building Peace Economies at Scale Community of Practice brings together 350+ experts across different sectors, including business, government, venture capital, impact investment, philanthropy, and civil society, who can identify leverage points, shared interests, complementary strengths, and opportunities for collective action. While quantitative and qualitative evidence for integrating peacebuilding and the private sector exists, we need better metrics and awareness-raising on how to integrate peace and security in private sector initiatives so they can yield better returns on investment, cost savings, and contribute to the peace and stability needed now more than ever.
Together, we are working to promote integrated knowledge and the adoption of shared principles and standards between the private and peacebuilding sectors to build trust-based partnerships that align business incentives with conflict prevention goals through better research, programs, and policies. By working with us, you'll have access to a metrics framework, a ready peer network, and policy input you can demonstrate to your investors.
Interested in learning more about the Building Peace Economies at Scale initiative?
Reach out to Emily Sample or complete this form to receive updates!
HOW
Building the evidence base of profitable businesses that are contributing to preventing and reducing violent conflict and violence, and where well-intentioned investments inadvertently caused conflict, and where there were missed opportunities. See the Key Resources list below, and a searchable repository is in development!
Together with the private sector, we are working to develop and advocate for better policies and standards with governments and multilateral organizations, specifically in the technology and energy sectors, so they are profitable and build peace and security.
Coming Soon! With our partner George Washington University, we are developing standardized metrics and evidence at the intersection of business and peace. Understanding how a business can influence peace is central to improving it. See the 10,000+ peacebuilding indicators in the Eirene Peacebuilding Database, soon to be updated with a new natural language AI tool.
KEY RESOURCES
Please send resources to be added to the Building Peace Economies repository to Emily Sample.
OECD. Private Finance Mobilisation Report 2026. OECD Publishing, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1787/a871a032-en.
Federman, Sarah. Corporate Reckoning: How Businesses Can Address Historical Wrongs. The MIT Press, 2026. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/15407.001.0001.
● AfP hosted a book talk with Professor Sarah Federman: watch the recording here.
Balfousia, Panagiota. “From Fragmentation to Insight: Why Data Convergence Matters for Scaling Impact.” The GIIN, April 24, 2026.
“Building Peace Economies: What Is Actually Happening Now, and What’s Still Missing” Peace Finance, January 12, 2026.
Miklian, Jason, Mark van Dorp, and John Katsos. Unlocking the Peace Premium: An Evidence-Based Review of the Potentials and Pitfalls of Private Sector Finance for Conflict Transformation. LSE Ideas, 2025.
Forrer, John J., and Terry R. Gray. Impact Investing at a Crossroads: A Pathway Forward. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2025.
Business and Peace Report 2024: Peace: A Good Predictor of Economic Success. Institute for Economics & Peace, 2024.
Smits, Marcel, Daniel Hyslop, and Riccardo Vinci. 2023. “Mapping Investment Guidance for Peace: A Comprehensive Review of Existing ESG, Impact and Sustainable Finance Principles and Guidance for Peace.” Finance for Peace, Geneva.
Interpeace and SEB. 2022. “Peace Bonds: Feasibility Study — Assessing the Potential of a New Asset Class that Can Lower Risk and Enhance Peace.” Geneva: Interpeace and SEB.
Economic Value of Peace: Measuring the Global Economic Impact of Violence and Conflict. Institute for Economics & Peace, 2021.
Espinosa, Arlette, Valeria Medinaceli Molina, and Nora von Wintersdorff. Gender Lens Impact Investing 2021. AlphaMundi, 2021.
Miklian, Jason, John E. Katsos, and Rina Alluri, eds. Business, Peacebuilding and Sustainable Development. Business and Peacebuilding Series. Routledge, 2019.
Evers, Tobias. 2010. “Doing Business and Making Peace? A Review of Research on Business-Based Peacebuilding.” Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Occasional Paper No. 3.
Tools
The Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) IRIS+ is a set of tools and guidance that translates impact intentions into measurable results.
“Impact For Decision-Making: An Online Curriculum On Impact-Financial Integration” is guide through the concepts, processes, and tools investors need to optimize portfolios for integrated impact and financial goals from Impact Frontiers.
The IFI Tool from the Social Finance Institute is an interactive, open-source, online tool, with the goal of illustrating the potential effects of impact-first investments on a portfolio of philanthropic assets.
The Peace Finance Impact Framework from Finance for Peace to help public and private investors plan, partner, report and ultimately realize peace impacts that reduce risks for investors and communities.
The “Investing for Impact: A Decision-Making Tool” from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is a practical framework to evaluate impact investments that strengthen families, communities and economic opportunity