TrustWorks is a Swiss-based boutique firm specialised in responsible business and investment in conflict-affected and high-risk areas (CAHRAs).
Founded in 2013, we have over a decade of experience supporting multinational corporations, development finance institutions, investors, governments, and international organisations navigate the world's most challenging contexts.
Our approach is grounded in International Humanitarian Law, heightened human rights due diligence, and conflict-sensitivity. We support our clients and partners to meet - and exceed - key sustainability standards, including the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (EU-CSDDD), while staying ahead of an evolving regulatory and risk landscape.
We apply the principle of 'responsible remain' wherever possible and strive to build resilient business in CAHRAs. To that end, we offer a full suite of tailored services: from on-the-ground due diligence and corporate governance roadmaps, to board sensitisation, training, action plan implementation, ongoing monitoring, and crisis management - all delivered with the sensitivity and rigour that complex contexts demand.
Our work is practical, our approach pragmatic, and our ethos shaped by a genuine commitment to those affected by violence and conflict. We work diligently and discreetly to help our clients minimise their negative impacts on conflict and, where possible, maximise their positive contributions to lives, livelihoods, and the conditions for stability.
Managing conflict risks and maximising positive impacts in the world's most challenging contexts.
Companies
We enable companies to operate, source and supply in line with legal requirements, normative frameworks and best practices on International Humanitarian Law, heightened human rights due diligence and conflict-sensitivity; where possible, we support companies to go beyond ‘minimum standards’ to have positive impacts on the lives and livelihoods of those affected by violence and conflict.
Investors
We enable investors - including DFIs and impact investors - to manage conflict risks and impacts in line with legal requirements, normative frameworks and best practices; where possible, we support investors to maximise positive impacts on the lives and livelihoods of those affected by violence and conflict. TrustWorks also participates in engagement meetings with MNCs led by private/institutional investors leveraging our proprietary ‘responsible business in conflict’ benchmarking methodology.
Governments & IOs
We work with governments and international organisations on two connected challenges: integrating conflict-sensitive policies and practices into private sector development programmes, and engaging business actors constructively in peace mediation and peacebuilding initiatives. Where possible, we build bridges across these agendas - creating the multi-stakeholder platforms and coalitions that neither side can build alone, in the places where it matters most.
TrustWorks is purpose-built to operate in CAHRAs. Equipped with specialist expertise, tailored insurance, and rigorous security protocols, we conduct on-the-ground due diligence and monitoring in the places that other organisations cannot reach.
This ‘on-the-ground’ capability is what makes our work credible. Conflict-specific due diligence – combining IHL and hHRDD practices - cannot be done from a distance. It requires people on the ground, with the training and infrastructure to operate safely and discreetly in contexts where the stakes - for companies, for communities, and for the people conducting the work - are at their highest.
To support country-level prioritisation, TrustWorks maintains a proprietary index of conflict-affected and fragile areas, drawing on internationally recognised indices and in-house expertise in IHL. Regularly updated, it forms one part of a broader prioritisation methodology, informing where scarce resources should be directed to conduct conflict-specific due diligence first.
Selected partners
We work with remarkable individuals and organisations that recognise the power of leading the way. Our clients and partners are not interested in ‘box ticking’ and they know that engagements in conflict-affected areas cannot be business as usual.
