Finance for Peace publishes a new version of the Standards
The reference against which investments are certified and their implementation independently verified, approved by the Standards Committee.
Standards to reduce risk by incorporating peace measures in investments.
Finance for Peace is an independent, not-for-profit standard-setter whose Standards are designed to help reduce risk through peace measures and create peace-positive impact, making investments more attractive and more likely to succeed.
We set the Standards
The Standards Committee sets the Finance for Peace Standards and certifies that suitable actions to reduce conflict risk are incorporated into an investment. Investments across asset classes that meet the Standards receive Finance for Peace certification.
The StandardsWe build the market
Through its Market Network it brings investors, project developers, governments, peace experts and local partners together to put the Standards to work in real transactions.
The Market NetworkHow reducing conflict risk can build a market
Peace measures reduce conflict risk, certification makes that reduction credible, and a market for peace-aligned finance can then form.
Reduce the risk
Peace measures, funded within the project, address conflict risk at its source. This is a financially material approach that can improve risk-adjusted returns, not an ethical screen.
Certify it to build trust
Investors can only price and communicate risk reduction they can verify. The Finance for Peace Standards and independent certification, verified every year, give the market that confidence.
A market forms
With a credible label, capital can flow to projects that were once too uncertain to finance, mobilising private finance for peace at scale and benefiting the communities involved.
Conflict risk is not only about conflict zones
Conflict risks are defined as risks that can lead to non-violent and violent conflicts, driven by a range of factors, including political, social and environmental factors, and that potentially can undermine a project’s viability, profitability and outcomes.
These risks can arise wherever a project affects the people and places around it, in stable as well as fragile markets, including through its value chain.
How conflict risk can build, and where peace measures can address it
When a project is designed without an awareness of local realities, conflict risk grows step by step until it reaches the balance sheet. Peace measures address it at the first steps, where it costs least.
Illustrative chain of effects
- 01
Local realities overlooked
Local realities are overlooked in project design, operations or the value chain
- 02
Unintended harm
Benefits reach some groups and not others, land is contested, or suppliers deepen tensions
- 03
Grievances turn to unrest
Protests, disputes or legal action
- 04
Operations disrupted
Delays, stoppages, supply shocks and cost overruns
- 05
Financing costs rise
Higher risk premiums, weaker ratings and reputational damage
Peace measures act here
Peace measures include, for example, analysis of local context and needs, consultation and agreed benefit-sharing and grievance mechanisms that work.
A certification investors can trust
Certification signals that a project is taking conflict risks into account and taking measures to reduce them. It is reviewed every year by an independent verifier.
News and resources
See more
A new approach to regional risk premiums
A project-level approach to pricing risk in fragile regions, so a project’s conduct, not only its country, sets its cost of capital.
Peace Bonds: bankable structures that can lower risk and enhance peace
How a Peace Bond can be structured so peace measures reduce risk and improve the investment case.