On 25^th April 2022, KEPSA CEO Ms. Carole Kariuki participated in the high-level roundtable at the ECOSOC Chamber, United Nations Headquarters in New York, where she made interventions on the challenges related to financing for peacebuilding to facilitate action-oriented commitments. The roundtable preceded the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on Financing for Peacebuilding that was held on 27^th April where the KEPSA CEO participated as the private sector speaker alongside the UN Secretary- General, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and the President of the World Bank, among others.

In the roundtable session, Ms. Kariuki was joined by Mr. Preeti Sinha, Executive Secretary, UN Capital Development Fund who was the moderator, Mr. Sherwin Das, Managing Partner, Energy Peace Partners, Mr. Christopher Egerton-Warburton, Co-CEO, Lionshead Capital, Mr. Samuel Tumiwa, Chief of Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations, Asian Development Bank, Ms. Beate Andrees, Special Representative to the UN & Director of the ILO Office for the UN, Ms. Sanda Ojiambo, Executive Director UN Global Compact, Mr. Sebastian Chaskel, Associate Partner – Instiglio, a Colombia-based non-profit which designs social impact bonds, Mr. Shea Gopaul, Special Representative to the UN from International Organization of Employers, Ms. Betty Wainaina Maina, Senior Programme Officer at the New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, Ms. Anna Fendley, Chair of the Youth Committee at the International Trade Union Confederation, Ms. Riva Kantowitz, Founder – Radical Flexibility Fund and Mr. Daniel Hyslop, Head of Research at Interpeace who joined virtually among others.

During the opening session on Peace-Responsive Investing through the Private Sector, Ms. Kariuki focused on highlighting the current state of global Peace and the existing gaps, the importance of peace to investments in the private sector, what KEPSA has been doing to ensure continual and sustained peaceful conditions both in Kenya and the globe, and also shared some approaches that the private sector can pursue in financing peacebuilding.

“Global peace deteriorated by 0.07% in 2021 – the ninth year it has deteriorated in the last 13 years with the Middle East and North Africa remaining the least peaceful regions in the world while Europe the most peaceful region (GPI, 2021).” She said.

Ms. Kariuki also said that the major drivers for the cost on conflict and violence were pandemics, and the COVID-19 pandemic had a big role to play as a result of increased civil unrest cases fuelled by government measures to try and curb the spread of the virus, where over 5,000 pandemic related cases were recorded between January 2020 and April 2021.

On the other hand, the cost of impact declined by 7.6 per cent, to $448.1 billion, driven by reduced terror activities and deaths.

Highlighting the importance of peace to investment in the private sector, the KEPSA CEO said that conflict or the anticipation of instability changes the behaviour of the private sector in terms of planning and investment.

“Businesses withhold investments and spending or redirect spending to security measures. In a study conducted by KEPSA to try and gauge the behaviour of business and effects of violent extremism, 54% of business reported to have lost revenue due to limited flow of customers; 29% reported destruction of property, and 12% reported an increased cost on insurance costs to safeguard their properties (KEPSA -Understanding the impact of violent extremism on Kenya’s private sector, 2019),” she said.

Sharing on what KEPSA been doing to ensure continual and sustained peaceful conditions both in Kenya and the globe, Ms. Kariuki noted that the organization was part of the mediation team in 2005 during the fallout in the coalition Government that could have led to insecurities, it was also part of the mediation team after the disputed 2007 Kenya’s general elections that led to post election violence which affected lives and livelihoods.

“KEPSA engineered the MKENYA DAIMA Initiative which is a non- partisan multi stakeholder platform whose primary purpose is to inspire Kenyans towards peaceful elections and prosperity thereafter.  The initiative is inspired by the Kenya private sector made up of representatives of the stakeholder groups that include the business community, civil society, religious communities, media, youth and women leaders.” She added.

Ms. Kariuki added that Mkenya Daima was started in 2012 with a primary purpose of inspiring peaceful elections and a peaceful transition and as proactive initiative than reaction as had happened before in many instances.

Speaking on some of the approaches the private sector can explore in Financing Peacebuilding, the KEPSA CEO said that participating and funding mediation and negotiations in peace building during conflict is one-way peace can be built and enhanced.

“The private sector can also engage in the policy dialogue with Government to ensure there is an enabling business environment for investments for job creation to reduce unemployment which is a driver of conflict.” She said.

The roundtable meeting aimed at showing the potential of different approaches in ensuring that the private sector contributes to peace, explore complementarities among such initiatives and identify points of convergence among efforts to mobilize more private capital in conflict-affected settings and how to measure its impact on peace and stability in these contexts.

The General Assembly is conducting several initiatives, some funded by Member States, that are exploring ways to assess the contribution of the private sector to peacebuilding, that is, how to move beyond a “do-no-harm” approach to positively contributing to peace, including by reducing drivers of conflict.

These initiatives include feasibility studies, research papers, normative guidance, new frameworks and investment strategies, as well as innovative financial instruments to deliver peace dividends that reach scale and help shape markets (job creation, access to basic services, infrastructure development, etc.) for those economies struck by conflict and instability.