» Peace Taxonomy

A guide to peace-positive investing

The essence of the Peace Taxonomy

The Peace Taxonomy is a vital tool guiding investors and businesses to identify specific changes they aim to achieve in peace and stability. It distinguishes three dimensions of peace impacts, providing clarity and direction for peace-focused investments.

Three dimensions of peace impact

Safety and security: This dimension focuses on reducing violence and conflict, or the fear thereof, known as negative peace. It encompasses various forms of direct physical violence and includes strategies like policing, law enforcement, peacekeeping and community enforcement. Private-sector investments often contribute indirectly to mitigating these forms of violence, with direct impact in areas like gender-based violence through specific employment policies and community engagement.
Social peace: Broader and more systemic than safety and security, social peace impacts are crucial for investors due to their operational and reputational relevance. This dimension covers a range of factors, from community inequalities to intercommunal violence, emphasising the need for intentional strategies that go beyond minimum safeguards to create meaningful social peace.
Political peace: This dimension involves high-level interventions in political relationships and dispute resolution mechanisms. Political peace is often visible in formal peace agreements or legal changes and requires careful consideration by investors to ensure their activities do not exacerbate conflict dynamics in fragile settings.

Using the taxonomy: A step-by-step approach

Get familiar with peace concepts

Understand the nuances between negative and positive peace and how they translate into social and political peace.

Negative peace (safety and security):

This represents the absence of direct physical violence or the fear of it. In our taxonomy, it is encapsulated under “safety and security”, a crucial dimension of peace.

Social peace:

Social peace impacts are broader and more multi-systemic than the safety and security dimension. Due to their breadth, relevance and links to operational, reputational and other forms of risk, this is perhaps the most fundamental peace dimension, to which investors can make both direct and indirect contributions.

Political peace:

This focuses on formal, often political solutions to conflicts, supported by legal frameworks like peace agreements or international resolutions. Political peace is about creating lasting, formal structures for peace.

Align investments with peace goals and relevant SDGs

Use the taxonomy to ensure your investments contribute to peace in meaningful ways, sensitive to the local context in which they operate with clear contributions to relevant SDGs and national development objectives.

Screen and evaluate projects

Check projects for their alignment with the taxonomy’s eligibility criteria, focusing on their potential to enhance peace and meet minimum environmental and social safeguards and compliance with the exclusionary criteria.

Assess peace potential

Identify how investments can contribute to peace, considering their direct, indirect, and do-no-harm impacts.

When we talk about investments contributing to peace, it is essential to understand how these contributions are made and their alignment with broader peace objectives. Here is a simple breakdown:

Aligning with peace objectives without causing harm:

Holistic contribution: Every activity should contribute to one or more peace objectives. But it is not just about adding to peace; it is equally important to ensure these activities do not harm any other peace objectives or overlook minimal social or environmental safeguards. This approach aligns with the principle of dual materiality, emphasising both positive impact and harm prevention.

Types of peace contributions:

Indirect positive contributions: These happen through the processes and outputs of a business. While they might not be the primary goal of a business activity, they play a crucial role in reducing factors that drive conflict or in enhancing factors that promote peace.Direct positive contributions: This is when the main outputs of investments directly address and mitigate factors that drive conflict or strengthen factors that foster peace. These contributions are intentional and directly linked to core business activities.

Making a meaningful impact:

In summary, whether an investment’s contribution to peace is direct or indirect, the key is to ensure that it aligns with peace objectives and upholds the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility. By understanding and applying these principles, investors and businesses can make a significant and positive impact on peace and stability.

Track and enhance peace impacts

Use peace-enhancing mechanisms and risk mitigation strategies to boost positive impacts and ensure compliance with the taxonomy.

Report on impact

Showcase how your investments contribute to peace, highlighting the effectiveness of peace-enhancing mechanisms and do-no-harm measures.

Peace impact dimension 1: Safety and security
	1.1 Impact on direct interpersonal violence in the community.
	1.2 Impact on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the community or household.
	1.3 Impact on abuse and all forms of violence against children.
	1.4 Impact on collective and intercommunal violence.
	1.5 Impact on armed conflict,sponsored violence, or violence by non – State actors.
	1.6 Impact on conflicts over natural resources.
	1.7 Impact on fear of violence in above categories.
	1.8 Other examples of impact.

Peace impact dimension 2: Social peace
	2.1 Impact on vertical social cohesion (State and society trust).
	2.2 Impact on horizontal social cohesion (trust between groups).
	2.3 Impact on equitable access to resources and basic services, income and goods (education, health, housing, work, etc.).
	2.4 Impact on gender, intergenerational equity or on other group identities based on caste, class, race, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, etc.
	2.5 Impact on governance of public services and trustworthy delivery of basic services
	2.6 Impact on patterns of economic exclusion of marginalised or excluded communities or groups.
	2.7 Impact on the free flow of information, transparency, accountability, and corruption in public and private institutions.
	2.8 Impact on climate resilience and access to cleaner sources of energy.
	2.9 Impact on structural grievances that are sources of violence (such as land rights and title, access to natural resources, etc.).
	2.10 Impact on cultural identities and local traditions.
	2.11 Other examples of impact.

Peace impact dimension 3: Political peace
	3.1 Impact on diplomatic relations between States and non-State actors.
	3.2 Impact on the development of infrastructure or on the provision of goods and services that support a formal peace process (defined in a peace agreement or recognised to be an element of a peace process).
	3.3 Impact on formal or informal dispute resolution mechanisms; improved perception of justice and human rights issues.
	3.4 Impact on transboundary relations (for example, cross border energy or water projects).
	3.5 Other examples of impact.
No harm is caused in other dimensions and sub – dimensions (DNH)
Exclusionary criteria and minimum social and environmental safeguards.

Peace Taxonomy