Business-Peace Models in Asia - Development Award

The focus of the Network Plus project proposal is the role of private business and philanthropy in conflict and post-conflict processes in Central and South/South-East Asia. While the "business for peace" movement has been celebrated and promoted for a decade or more, less attention has been paid to forms of economic nationalism and especially the use of philanthropy, corporate responsibility, and social business models in and for ethno-religious nationalist movements - what Widger, drawing from research into the Sri Lankan and Myanmar contexts, has termed "philanthronationalism."

Our vision is to support ground-breaking inter-disciplinary research, knowledge exchange, and impact activities that can help to tackle the causes of conflict by better understanding the role played by the private sector in causing or maintaining conflict and violence, and by becoming effective actors in peacebuilding processes. We propose to advance a critical comparative understanding between two regions - Central and South/East Asia - which are not often studied together, and may offer novel insights into business-peace models in Asia. Network Plus projects will be commissioned via three networks established for this purpose - the Philanthropy for Peace (P4P) Network, which will explore inclusive and sustainable funding mechanisms and partnerships for civil society organisations involved in conflict resolution and peacebuilding; the Corporate Sustainability & Peacebuilding (CSP) Network, which will explore governance and business frameworks for large companies wishing to take the lead in conflict resolution and peacebuilding activities themselves, or in partnership with civil society organisations, and the Social Enterprise in Conflict-Affected Regions (SECAR) Network, which will explore support mechanisms for impact investment in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that can tackle the economic and social roots of conflict.

The Development Award will be used to build extend strong, equitable, and sustainable partnerships with the International Co-Investigators and key collaborators in the target LMICs, and conduct scoping research and network development activities at national and international levels to help inform the grant writing process. The funds will be used to address specific comments raised by the reviewers of the preliminary application, the general feedback provided by the AHRC, and additional priority areas that have since been identified by the team members (partly in response to changing political conditions on the ground, for example in Sri Lanka). The Development Award will also have potential for producing new research and impact outputs that could be built upon if the final proposal was not successful, including supporting research and career priorities of the International Co-Investigators and impact activities associated with the PI's forthcoming book project on philanthropy, nationalism, and Buddhist-Muslim conflict in South and South-East Asia.

The ultimate beneficiaries are economically disadvantaged communities in conflict-affected regions of South and Central Asia, business leaders and owner-managers in those regions wishing to enhance their involvement in sustainable economic development and peacebuilding activities, and policy makers wishing to support private sector involvement in those activities. More immediately, the research will benefit practice partners CSR Sri Lanka (co-I); International Alert (co-I); Asian Productivity Organization; Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry; Banking with the Poor Network (see letters of support); other international development partners: inter alia, CSR Asia, Asia Philanthropy Forum, Asian Development Bank, USAID, DfID, and EU; and, at national levels, officers of international/regional partners; ministries of business, welfare, finance; chambers of commerce; SME support organizations, networks, and platforms; and CSR support organizations, networks, and platforms.