OEF Announces Innovation in Partnerships Workshop

Broomfield, Colorado: 4 December 2018 – Today, One Earth Future (OEF) and the International Peace Institute are holding Innovation in Partnerships: Making a Business Case for Peace in New York City. The workshop is also supported by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations, the UN Office for Partnerships, the UN Peacebuilding Support Office, as well as the UN Global Compact. This workshop series is designed to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals by creating opportunities to do business around the world responsibly and contribute to lasting peace.

The 2030 Agenda calls for the creation of multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial resources. This initiative will bring together the private sector, governments, UN entities, and civil society to identify projects and actions for joint implementation.

Workshop Focused on Sustaining Peace as the Outcome

Unlike previous public-private partnership endeavors, this workshop series aims not simply to bring about economic growth, but instead focuses on Sustaining Peace as the outcome.

“The linkage between peace and sustainable development needs to be strengthened not because it is a good idea, but because multi-stakeholder collaboration and networks are the only way sustainable peace can be achieved.” said Marcel Arsenault, Founder of OEF. “Each part of global networks: United Nations agencies, the private sector, or civil society organizations touch aspects of peace and conflict in different ways, but traditional cross-sectoral partnerships have focused on the building blocks of sustainable development rather than peace building. This session changes that dynamic and brings the right people to the table for creating sustainable networks and partnerships with real objectives to achieve peace.”

“To leave no one behind, we need to build new kinds of partnerships that truly add value to communities on the ground and foster new models of inclusive growth. We hope this project becomes a tool for the UN system to develop multi-stakeholder partnerships along with our planning partners at the UN Office of Peace Building Support, the UN Office of Partnerships, the Republic of Korea and UN Global Compact” said, Jimena Leiva Roesch, Research Fellow at the International Peace Institute.

The first session of what will be several workshops will focus on Fisheries, Blended Finance, Mobile Technology, and Measuring peace, and migration. Objectives of the meeting will be to develop the common language between the private sector and the peace building community, including the development of a value proposition for private sector engagement and alignment of business interests and investments with the Sustainable Development Goals.

“This workshop is designed to develop a platform to engage the private sector in peace. The catalytic design of the dialogue is to move discussion to action”, said Maureen Connolly, Project Director and Fellow with One Earth Future.  “We look forward to this becoming an on-going process to accelerate progress on the 2030 Goals”.

Private Sector Participants

Private Sector participation includes Mastercard, Carrier Corp and KPMG discussing food security, financial inclusivity and measuring peace at table discussions.

For more information on the workshop, visit:
oneearthfuture.org/events/making-business-case-peace