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The Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement (ACDS) at the University of Stellenbosch Business School is undertaking a research project with international partners to assist in filling the evidence gap regarding the effectiveness of business' efforts for peace.

The study will attempt to help business, governments, peace advocates and international institutions "move beyond rhetoric to the real evidence", according to Prof Brian Ganson, director of the ACDS.

The centre is co-leading the research project with CDA Collaborative Learning Projects in the United States and the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway. Funding is provided by the Carnegie Corporation and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ultimately, the aim is to engage the business community as a new peace building actor.

Ganson says: "What assumptions about business and peace are wrong, even if widely held? We know, for example, that more jobs or economic growth alone doesn't necessarily bring peace. What are the constructive roles businesses can in fact play?"

The study will use case studies that focus on positive examples of business in situations of conflict in order to help all role players in making wiser decisions about how to invest time and resources to create more peaceful environments.

Ganson, an international expert on management in complex environments, emphasises that it is particularly important that an African institution be co-leading this research and participating in the broader conversation.

"From the African perspective, we understand that 'peace' isn't just the absence of inter-state wars or armed rebel movements. It's about reducing and ultimately eliminating the violence and other forms of corrosive conflict that undermine our communities, workplaces, and broader societies," he says.

He adds: "It's a more positive vision of peace where human rights are respected and human needs met. Our involvement can help ensure that African voices - whether of communities affected by conflict and violence or of our businesses - be heard in the global debate."

The ACDS and its research partners states that a marked transformation has taken place over the past decade in the discourse on companies' role in creating, strengthening, or sustaining peace. Scholars, governments, NGOs and multilateral agencies are increasingly suggesting that businesses can, and do, act in ways that contribute to peace.

Many firms adopt a "do-no-harm" approach in conflict-ridden or fragile local environments. Much of this focuses on company-community conflicts and relations, as well as how companies can avoid having negative impacts. The latter can happen through complicity in human rights violations or through operational impacts that create social and environmental harm.

However, although enthusiasm has grown for an enhanced role of companies in advancing peace, confusion and questionable claims about what private sector actors can accomplish in contexts of conflict have also proliferated.

The ACDS and its partners believe much remains to be learned about what corporate practices are effective not just in mitigating conflict-inducing business activities, but also in building peace.

"We still lack sound knowledge on how business actors can address key drivers of conflict and peace, or facilitate on-going peace processes," they said in a statement.