Each year, Business for Peace hosts a Summit in Oslo, Norway. The Summit includes keynote presentations, debates, and roundtable discussions featuring business leaders and experts from a breadth of fields. The event serves to accelerate the Foundation’s vision to recognise, inspire and accelerate businessworthy leadership.

In 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual Summit is not able to take place as usual. However, important, cross-sector conversations and action still need to occur, perhaps more than ever before. In lieu of a physical Summit in 2021, the Foundation hosted a three-day, online Spotlight Series focusing on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Inclusive Economic Growth. 

The Spotlight Series offered insight and actionable ideas as to how businesses can adopt a multi-stakeholder approach to create better systems for decent work, safeguard employees’ rights and safety, build more resilient supply chains, and increase both economic and social participation of youths and the most vulnerable in society in the workforce.

With the UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 as its focal point, this event series also explored how organisations can work together to address the current needs of all stakeholders. From tackling social and economic challenges arising from the current pandemic to generating innovative solutions and re-building resilient, inclusive and sustainable economies. 

Our programme included opening remarks from Governing Mayor of Oslo, Raymond Johansen; an interview with Nobel prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz on Stakeholder Capitalism; an interview with Sanda Ojiambo, Executive Director at the United Nations Global Compact, on how governments and businesses can “build back better” together; a Youth Workshop; a ReThinking Systems of Decent Work panel including Guy Ryder, Director General of the International Labour Organisation, and much more.

 Previous years’ themes have included:

2019- “Navigating in a World of Imbalance” (15 May)

2018- “Building Trust: Accelerating Climate Leadership” (15 May)

2017 – “Brundtland +30: Breakthrough Ideas for Future-proofing the Global Economy” (15 May)

2016 – “Moving Toward the Global Goals: Business as a Problem Solver” (3 May)

2015 – “How can sustainability be a driver of value creation?” (6 May)

2014 – “The new imperative: Creating Shared Value” (15 May)

2013 – “Business in Fragile Environments” (14 May)

2012 – “The Essences of Trust in Business Today” (7 May)

2011 – “Business as an Instrument for Peace”, Research Symposium (17 October)

2010 – “New Times, the potential of business to contribute to stability and peace” (18 October)

2009 – “The World in Recession, a call for a more ethically aware capitalism?” (14 May)

2008 – “Globalisation: The good, the bad and the ugly” (15 May)

2007 – “Peace and Stability through Trade” (20 April)