Business-NGO Collaboration in a Conflict Setting: Partnership Activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

While business-NGO partnerships have received much attention in recent years, insights have been \nobtained from research in ‘stable’ contexts, not from conflict-ridden countries where such \ncollaboration may be even more crucial in building trust and capacity and in addressing governance \nproblems given the absence of a reliable state. This paper aims to shed light on business-NGOs \ncollaboration in a conflict setting, exploring partnership activities in the Democratic Republic of \nCongo. Most partnerships found are philanthropic, and deal with ‘traditional’ issues such as health and \neducation in a donor-recipient mode with limited community involvement. There are only a few real \ntransformative partnerships, which address aspects directly related to the conflict from a wider \ncommunity focus; these involve extractive companies most exposed via mineral \ndevelopment/production. We also found so-called ‘engagement’ collaboration which can be divided \ninto activities including the transfer of funds (and characterised by service delivery), and those without \nfunds, focusing on knowledge exchange that furthers companies’ awareness of conflict-sensitive \nissues into their operations. Peculiarities of the different types of partnerships are discussed as well as \nimplications for research and practice.

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