Business–NGO Collaboration in a Conflict Setting

Abstract

While business-NGO partnerships have received much attention in recent years, insights have been obtained from research in 'stable' contexts, not from conflict-ridden countries where such collaboration may be even more crucial in building trust and capacity and in addressing governance problems given the absence of a reliable state. This paper aims to shed light on business-NGOs collaboration in a conflict setting, exploring partnership activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most partnerships found are philanthropic, and deal with 'traditional' issues such as health and education in a donor-recipient mode with limited community involvement. There are only a few real transformative partnerships, which address aspects directly related to the conflict from a wider community focus; these involve extractive companies most exposed via mineral development/production. We also found so-called 'engagement' collaboration which can be divided into activities including the transfer of funds (and characterised by service delivery), and those without funds, focusing on knowledge exchange that furthers companies' awareness of conflict-sensitive issues into their operations. Peculiarities of the different types of partnerships are discussed as well as implications for research and practice.

Multinationals, CSR and Partnerships in Central African Conflict Countries

“…1 1 This is part of a longer‐term project in which both primary and secondary information has been collected from and about NGOs, MNEs, and other relevant governmental and non‐governmental actors (this has included systematic analyses of all publications and websites of MNEs and NGOs as well as surveys and interviews carried out by the second author). This paper, which is relatively short reflecting the nature of the outlet in its focus on innovative examples and policy relevance, builds on and extends other research reported in our earlier publications (Kolk and Lenfant, , ).…”

“…The cases presented in this paper thus embody innovative approaches that may be (partly) replicated or extended elsewhere, or serve as inspiration by providing insight into the dynamics of and motivations for engagement. Main partners in the initiatives are usually MNEs and NGOs (Kolk and Lenfant, ). The paper suggests that engagement patterns between these two types of actors in conflict countries are shifting from confrontation to more positive types of collaboration; this evolution has also been observed in non‐conflict settings (Yaziji and Doh, ).…”

“…Although partnerships have been hailed as potentially significant ways to tackle conflict‐related issues, particularly corruption, poverty, and social inequality (Nelson, ; Bennett, ; Oetzel et al ., ), empirical evidence is still relatively limited. Interestingly, studies that looked at partnerships in African conflict settings concluded that collaborative activities follow a rather philanthropic model (Boele et al ., ; Wheeler et al ., ; Ite, ; ; Idemudia and Ite, ; Idemudia, ; Kolk and Lenfant, ). The full potential of partnerships as effective and innovative collaborative modalities with an eye to tackling pressing governance issues typically found in conflict countries has not yet been realized.…”

“…Generally speaking, however, (post)conflict countries provide a context that is less conducive to partnerships given that antagonism, fear, and hostilities are still present, looming and/or lingering. Some business‐NGO partnerships can be found in African conflict countries, but only a very small number deals with aspects directly related to the conflict with a wider community focus that may thus contribute to peace and reconciliation (Kolk and Lenfant, ). Besides a predominance of ‘traditional’ philanthropic activities and an underrepresentation of so‐called engagement and particularly transformative partnerships (Kolk and Lenfant, ), the government is seldom included as a partner.…”

“…Some business‐NGO partnerships can be found in African conflict countries, but only a very small number deals with aspects directly related to the conflict with a wider community focus that may thus contribute to peace and reconciliation (Kolk and Lenfant, ). Besides a predominance of ‘traditional’ philanthropic activities and an underrepresentation of so‐called engagement and particularly transformative partnerships (Kolk and Lenfant, ), the government is seldom included as a partner. While understandable, given governance failures and sometimes even the (in)direct involvement of government representatives (e.g.…”