Business for Peace Foundation (BfP) is a non-profit foundation based in Oslo, Norway. Each year, the foundation names up to seven Honourees who receive the Oslo Business for Peace Award, in recognition of their individual and business-worthy contribution to the building of trust, stability and peace. The Honourees are selected by an independent committee composed of winners of either the Nobel Peace Prize or Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
The Foundation works worldwide to understand how ethical and responsible business can contribute to building trust, stability and peace. Each year, the Foundation arranges the Oslo Business for Peace Summit, which concludes with the presentation of the Award to that year's Honourees.
Background
The Business for Peace Foundation was established to inspire business leaders and businesses to reconnect with society, to the mutual benefit of both. The Foundation works to demonstrate that business can be a force of mutual good, able to contribute significantly to the building of trust, stability and peace. The Foundation promotes the concept of "being business-worthy", seeking to raise business practices from short-term win-lose dynamics to fulfilling longer-term business aims.
The foundation draws inspiration from the dictum:
The Award Committee of the Business for Peace Foundation selects Honourees who each have demonstrated that it is possible for a business to enter into partnership with society, while remaining profitable and capable of longer-term growth. The goal of the Foundation is to provide its Honourees with a platform from which to share their business wisdom with the world, hoping to inspire other business leaders to emulate their examples.
Kofi A. Annan has stated that "It is important to inspire and encourage businesspersons to be conscious of the role they can play as individuals to foster stability and peace. I think the idea behind the Oslo Business for Peace Award, and the potential impact it may have, is inspiring".
Nominations to the Award
The Business for Peace Foundation works together with nominating partners that help search the world for candidates who embody the values described by the criteria for the Oslo Business for Peace Award. Beginning in 2009, the Foundation has entered into a formal collaboration with the International Chamber of Commerce, the largest business organisation in the world. Its hundreds of thousands of member companies in 130 countries have interests spanning every sector of private enterprise. The Foundation also works together with Principles for Responsible Investment, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Global Compact, in searching the world for eligible candidates to the award. The honourees named by the foundation are also able to nominate candidates for the award in subsequent years.
Oddvar Hesjedal serves as secretary of nominations, guiding the nomination process through the year and assisting the award committee in its work.
The Criteria
The Oslo Business for Peace Award aims to highlight ethical and responsible business practices, and the commitment of business leaders as individuals towards creating sustainable long-term success of benefit to their businesses, society and themselves. The independent Award Committee evaluates the Nominees according to three criteria established by the Business for Peace Foundation.
To be considered Business-worthy, and a candidate for the Award, the Nominees must be:
Examples to Society and their Peers. The Nominees are acting as examples to the general public and inspiring the business community by showing how to achieve success through ethical and responsible practices. Advocates of Ethical and Responsible Business. Nominees are outspoken advocates of ethical and responsible business principles, and of social responsibility in corporate governance. Trusted by the Communities their Businesses Affect. Nominees have developed and cultivated successful international or national businesses in a manner that is recognized and appreciated by the communities within which their business is active, ideally by creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society.