Circle of Innovators Dialogue: Corporate responsibility in a new age of conflict and uncertainty

IHRB’s annual Circle of Innovators Dialogues address emerging dilemmas in the field of business and human rights.

At this year’s dialogue, attendees will exchange ideas, practices and potential approaches around the theme of conflict and its impacts on corporate responsibility.

An increasingly fractured world order raises important questions for the international corporate responsibility agenda.

Armed conflict in many parts of the world has brought added complexity to business operations at a time of already accelerating change due to mounting climate impacts, growing political divisions, and ongoing Covid related disruptions, all with wider impacts on international trade and markets. The search for transition minerals brings back to centre stage old challenges, including securing community consent and sharing prosperity with affected communities. Heightened tensions along trade routes, as has been seen in  attacks on ships, are compounded by perverse incentives offered by political risk insurance. The safety of workers - both maritime and migrant workers - is in peril. The future of global order is in the balance as a record number of countries and voters head for elections in 2024. All of these developments highlight the  need for heightened human rights due diligence processes across a wider set of business relationships, including the role of finance as a critical enabler/disabler.

As  global alliances become fluid and conflicts continue, developing consensus on strategically critical issues becomes more challenging. Efforts to promote peace, reduce emissions, and move rapidly towards green transitions, as well as build and reconstruct cities and infrastructure sustainably, all while channelling finance to spur positive outcomes are made more difficult by today’s complex realities. Furthermore, as decoupling and reshoring ideas gain ground for strategic and political considerations, the global trade agenda faces an even more uncertain future.

• How should business leaders navigate this space, and react to changing global dynamics?
• What becomes of the achievements that have shaped the responsible business field over recent decades, and what new alliances are needed?
• Where will governments and private actors turn for urgently needed finance to advance human development and scale up the green transition given an ever more divisive geopolitical reality?
• How will unfolding conflicts affect business thinking on human rights due diligence, measuring risk, security of personnel and assets, people-centred investments, and access to global markets?
• Will the cumulative effect of multiple conflicts adversely impact wider business strategy, relationships and resource allocation, and what should businesses and governments do to respond responsibly to the present moment?

The Circle of Innovators Dialogue will address these big picture questions. The event will be structured around four sessions: Responsible finance in times of conflict; Responsible trade in times of conflict; The costs of green conflict; Responsible post-conflict reconstruction.

The meeting is in-person and invitation-only to foster confidential and open discussion between IHRB’s partners and supporters from companies, government, civil society, and academia.

IHRB will publish a short unattributed summary of the discussion.

If you would like to find out more information about this event, please email YaYa.Horne@IHRB.org