Browsing by Author "Ganson, Brian"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Access to remedy through consensual processes
    (2018) Ganson, Brian
    A growing number of non-judicial mechanisms purport to address the grievances of individuals and communities whose human rights may be adversely impacted by a business enterprise. Whether and how such mechanisms can provide effective remedy is a topic of substantial concern. The discussion becomes particularly pointed in the many contexts in which there is no meaningful access to judicial remedy, and therefore effective remedy depends fundamentally on the consent of the company to both the process and the outcome of a non-judicial mechanism. This discussion document intends to help advance this debate in constructive ways. It first draws on a variety of formal and informal inputs to explore common themes and questions that frequently arise in discussions of remedy for negative human rights impacts through non-judicial mechanisms, seeking to illustrate the logical relationships among them and to lay the ground for identifying a way forward in a complex debate. It then briefly explores two challenges that consent-based mechanisms face that appear fundamental: their inter-dependence with adjudicative mechanisms, and the necessity that stakeholders have confidence in both their processes and their outcomes on a sustainable basis. Moving from descriptive to prescriptive mode, the discussion document recommends exploration of the possible value of guidance on the evaluation of consent-based remedy systems and outcomes. It suggests that more structured scrutiny of systems design, systems outcomes and systems governance may be one way to increase accountability for effective remedy within non-judicial mechanisms, while respecting the need for stakeholders to sustainably implement mechanisms which they agree are appropriate to and legitimate within their particular context.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Building municipal capacity : lessons from 'top down' and 'bottom up' state building
    (2016) Ganson, Brian
    As companies engage to help build municipal capacity in South Africa, it may be useful to situate these efforts within the experience of international attempts to drive good governance and development through ‘state building’. Analysis provides warnings about an exclusive focus on the institutions and capacities of the formal government, with attendant risks of failed projects or even perverse effects that reinforce division and increase resistance to change. It suggests that a broader lens on the society and the political economy may be necessary to conceptualize and mobilize sufficient coalitions for positive change. And it provides some guidance to companies to the specific risks and opportunities they face as change agents. The discussion below draws substantially from studies of particularly conflict-prone environments, both because of the availability of evidence, and because of the relevance to the South African municipal context.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Business in the transition to democracy in South Africa : historical and contemporary perspectives
    (2017) Ganson, Brian
    This paper was written as a contribution to the research initiative entitled Engaging the Business Community as a New Peacebuilding Actor. It is a joint project of the Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement (ACDS), CDA Collaborative Learning Projects (CDA), and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project aims to fill the large gap in evidence regarding the effectiveness of business efforts for peace, providing a framework and practical guidance for more effective planning and evaluation of business-peace initiatives, policies and practices. Comments, critiques and corrections are welcome.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mind the gap : an interview with Brian Ganson
    (2015) Ganson, Brian; Botha, Linda; Lumerman, Pablo
    Brian Ganson heads the Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. He engages with multinational companies, governments, community advocates and other international actors as a consultant, researcher, educator, and mediator. His work focuses on the nexus of business, conflict and development, addressing multi-stakeholder approaches to risk mitigation and conflict prevention, organizational management and leadership, and the role of neutrals in postconflict and other complex environments.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Private sector development and the persistence of fragility in Sierra Leone
    (V.K. Aggarwal and Cambridge University Press, 2019) Ganson, Brian; M’cleod, Herbert
    Rhetoric from both domestic and international policy actors equated foreign direct investment and robust business growth in Sierra Leone with an exit from fragility. To the contrary, the trajectory of private sector development experienced from 2002 to 2014 contributed to Sierra Leone's socio-political challenges, replicating in the contemporary period dynamics of grievance and exclusion that were root causes of the country's endemic instability and then civil war. This study challenges the practices and refines the ideas underlying the prevailing vision for business-led development in Sierra Leone and other fragile states. It links extensive documentation of the role of business in Sierra Leone with peacebuilding and statebuilding frameworks to present a novel perspective on the mechanisms of action of private sector development in contexts of persistent fragility. In doing so, it provides a foundation on which further theoretical propositions for the ordering of business-state relations in support of transitions from fragility to peaceful development can be developed and tested.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Theorising MSMEs in contexts of urban violence
    (LSE Press, 2021) Ganson, Brian; Hoelscher, Kristian
    What are the relationships between and among small businesses, conflict, and peaceful development in contexts of urban violence? Here, the complex formal and informal divisions of economic, political and social power, authority, and legitimacy – and the many grey areas between legality and illegality, necessity and opportunism – create challenging conditions for business operations and for peacebuilding. A grounded understanding is required if peace- and development-positive interventions are to be successful. Yet both the peacebuilding and development potential of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and the specific dynamics of business and conflict in urban spaces, are underdeveloped in the literature assessing and promoting business potential to catalyse positive change. We therefore extract from a broad range of literature a typology representing the weight of the extant frameworks for understanding MSMEs in contexts of urban violence. We then use primary research to construct inductively a framework that captures how those living with urban violence themselves perceive businesses, their relationships to violence, and their impacts on in/security and under/development. Drawing out key areas of synthesis and tension, we propose directions for future study and practice related to small businesses in violent cities, emphasising the need to eschew simple understandings of actors, agency, and objectives in favour of a more nuanced and humane inquiry into the pain and potential inherent in the local context.