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April 2023
Through the partnership with TrustWorks Global, One Earth Future Foundation has increased its operational capacities for conflict-sensitive and peace promoting investments in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
[Nairobi, April 2023]. Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation (OEF) is delighted to announce that the foundation has entered into a strategic partnership with TrustWorks Global (TrustWorks) to catalyze its efforts to support a thriving and resilient private sector in Fragile and Conflict-affected Settings (FCS). The agreement between the two entities was signed in Nairobi, Kenya.
The agreement brings together a prominent US-based foundation – founded by philanthropists, Marcel and Cynda Arsenault – with over $25 million of assets under management in conflict contexts, with a Swiss-based social enterprise leading the mobilization of the power of private and public-sector actors to prevent conflict, promote stability and foster peace-positive development in FCS. TrustWorks’ initiatives in this space are enhanced by their strategic partnership with Tunis-based data science and artificial intelligence experts, MajestEYE.
“Together with TrustWorks’ leading specialists in conflict-sensitive and peace-promoting business in FCS, we commit to leveraging our unique respective expertise to transform the way development partners approach investment in challenging contexts” said OEF Executive Director, Jon Bellish. “We believe that TrustWorks’ unique conflict-sensitive, data-informed methodology enables us to minimise the negative and maximise the positive impacts of our SME Facilities on peace and stability, ultimately enabling us to scale up investments in places that need them the most.”
The partnership between OEF and TrustWorks – in the context of their respective work with development financial institutions, impact and commercial investors – provides an opportunity for two entities with a shared passion for peace to strengthen a series of objectives building upon TrustWorks’ unique approach:
- Ensure OEF investments are guided by a conflict-sensitive investment framework and ongoing advisory services: TrustWorks will provide forward-looking investment frameworks and advisory services to OEF, based on their unique data-informed conflict-sensitivity methodology, called PeaceEYE, developed in partnership with MajestEYE. Leveraging the descriptive and prescriptive analytics, they are able to provide ongoing risk mitigation and opportunity maximisation, combined with crisis management.
- Impact measurement for learning & OEF adaptive management: TrustWorks’ data-informed impact measurement framework is tailored to identified goals (including ESG and SDG) as well as key peace and conflict indicators. Active monitoring over time will enable OEF to make changes to their approach, as well as the type of support being provided to SMEs in the facility.
- Tailored peacebuilding support to SMEs in the OEF portfolio: Complementing traditional Technical Assistance (TA) approaches, TrustWorks will offer SMEs in the OEF portfolio tailored training, mentoring and accompaniment to help them deal with complex conflict dynamics. TrustWorks also facilitates network- and alliance building for collective action, as well as other tailored peacebuilding support and partnership-building services that enable SMEs to flourish.
“We welcome this partnership because we know that trade, investment and business operations/supply chains in fragile contexts that are conflict-insensitive can do more harm than good. The private sector has a fundamental role in supporting countries to transition out of fragility, through the way their core operations and supply chains are conducted. This partnership is a unique opportunity to scale up our work on responsible business in FCS with a leading, innovative entity that has a proven, successful track record”, said TrustWorks CEO, Josie Lianna Kaye. “With OEF, we can demonstrate that transformative investments in FCS are possible – with a combination of commitment, creativity and, most importantly, conflict-sensitivity.”
About the two organisations
TrustWorks Global (TrustWorks) enables public and private actors (businesses, investors, governments and international organizations) to operate in fragile and conflict-affected settings in a manner that is responsible, collaborative and innovative. TrustWorks’ core purpose is to prevent conflict, promote stability and foster peace-positive development with a view to improving the lives and livelihoods of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
TrustWorks has a particular expertise in supporting multi-national corporations, investors (DFIs, impact and commercial) as well as SMEs to operate in responsible, conflict-sensitive and peace-promoting ways in challenging contexts. TrustWorks believes that prosperous societies are built on conflict-sensitive economies.
One Earth Future Foundation (OEF) incubates innovative, context-specific peacebuilding programs, designing, testing, and partnering to scale programs that work hand-in-hand with those most affected by conflict to eliminate the root causes of war. We believe that a thriving and resilient private sector creates livelihoods, encourages greater civic participation, and reinforces effective governance, leading to greater peace and stability.
OEF has extensive experience brokering investments and providing financial products to companies in the Somali region. In total, $17.4 million has been invested, resulting in $25.2 million of assets under management. To directly support a burgeoning private sector, OEF has facilitated 67 higher-risk loans from Somali banks to local businesses under one of the world’s first Sharia-compliant credit guarantees. One of the platforms through which OEF manages investments in the private sector is the Nordic Horn of Africa Opportunities Fund (NHAOF or Nordic Fund).
Media contact: Simon Ehmsen – simon@trustworksglobal.com
