Re-imagining prosperity: the role of businesses in peace building

Tina McKenzie writes exclusively for Northern Slant ahead of Monday’s Build Peace Conference in Belfast.

One hundred years ago, the image of Northern Ireland at work was flat cap wearing men marching down to shipyards and linen mills. Today, the old site of one of the world’s most famous shipyards is home to digital and tech start-ups; the workers making their way to East Belfast are more likely to be drinking flat whites than mugs of builder’s tea.

In just as much time, Northern Ireland and societies across the globe have experienced radical changes – World Wars, our Troubles, political unrest, followed by peace agreements, shifts in global super powers, and new politico-economic alliances.

Outside of the way we work and fluctuations in global peace, so much has changed and will change that it isn’t immediately obvious how interlinked the future of work is with peaceful societies. For me, it is absolutely clear. Peace allows companies to flourish, with successful businesses creating new opportunities for people to support their families and contribute to a culture of ambition and shared priorities, a perpetual cycle further contributing to a peaceful society.

With this year marking twenty years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, former US President Bill Clinton told an audience in Belfast that one of the most important things in the peace process was to “keep the cranes up”. It was a strong message to politicians in a time when our Executive has stopped making important decisions, impacting business confidence: where there is economic prosperity, where there are jobs, there is a greater opportunity for peace.

This means there is much more work for us – the global us – to do in the next few years, as even more radical change is yet to come.

By 2030, 800 million jobs could be lost worldwide to automation. Over 15% of the UK workforce is now self-employed, with 77% of full-time employees saying they would consider working on a contingent or contract basis, fuelling the “gig economy”. The UK has seen a 43% decrease in people immigrating to look for work since the Brexit vote, with record low unemployment rates and record high job vacancies forcing employers to consider alternatives.

Technology, greater and greater need for work-life balance, and Brexit all have the capacity to radically change economies worldwide, particularly on the way we work. Radical change brings new opportunities, but also concerns of economic insecurity – and economic insecurity is a breeding ground for conflict.

It is fitting then that this year’s Build Peace conference – an international conference to be held next week that will bring around 300 delegates from across the world to Belfast – will be focused on “Re-Imagining Prosperity: Alternative Economies for Peace”. Short talks, workshops, and conversations will focus on the opportunities and challenges brought by economic change. Delegates will explore how technology, arts and innovations can fuel peacebuilding and conflict transformation in a global context.

In this part of the world, we are sometimes peace-weary, cynically thinking constant talk of “peace-building” is an inward-focused exercise. However, you only need to look at political unrest in the United States to see this is a conversation with global implications, impacting societies scarred by division and those societies we consider to be in relative peace.

For years, advances in technology have led to gradual job losses in the American states that once were the manufacturing powerhouses of the world, angering working-class Americans in what is now known as the ‘rust belt’. Has history not shown us what happens when economic insecurity pushes people towards populist movements, blaming immigration and international cooperation for their shrinking pocketbooks? It is tempting to dismiss this as a political skirmish – and all of us hope that is the extent – but bombs left at the door of political leaders sounds like a shameful line from Northern Ireland’s history books, not last week’s newspaper headline from what was once considered the global leader in democracy and business.

With this globally-recognised conference taking place in the UK and Ireland for the first time in its history, Belfast was able to shake off the shackles of inward-focused conversations on peace. The conference, organised by the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building, is sponsored by Grafton Recruitment not just because peace allows businesses to prosper. In fact, alongside peace-building charities and social organisations, businesses have a crucial role in peace building itself: growing sustainably to create jobs that economically empower individuals, creating shared spaces, supporting families, and playing an active role as a contributor to peace, not merely as a passive benefactor.

There are uncertainties but also wonderful opportunities ahead. Automation and Artificial Intelligence may displace some jobs, but they will also create better paying opportunities as they supercharge the Knowledge Economy.

The growth of the “gig economy” has many understandably concerned about the abuse of zero-hours contracts, but navigated correctly, it is an opportunity to rethink the traditional 9 to 5 and the impact of overwork on mental health. Across the world, governments are seeing the potential challenges ahead and discussing radical changes to how we structure our society, with innovative proposals such as Universal Basic Incomes providing people with the economic security to pursue work that fits their lifestyle, commitments, ambitions and needs within the economy.

What sort of world will we have if we build families, communities, and societies that truly prioritise a healthy balance between economically “productive” contributions outside the home, caring responsibilities for our families, and our own individual passions and pursuits?

As businesses innovate and create new links with economies worldwide, and as people begin shifting their priorities and perceptions of work, these are the conversations on which Northern Ireland should be focused. Our extensive knowledge on peace, stemming from our history, does not make as an oddity in the world stage to be “figured out” by outside parties – it makes us authorities on how societies across the world should adapt to the changes we all face.

With the Build Peace conference, it is only right that Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland employers should be at the very heart of this global conversation on building peace, re-shaping economies, and re-imagining society.