The 2013 Oslo Business for Peace Awards recently celebrated the role of economic growth in peace, awarding five business leaders for leading global stability by building valuable business that create financial and social value in local communities. 

Commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Business for Peace Foundation, the awards were recently announced at the 8th World Chambers Congress in Doha. The Business for Peace Foundation has promoted the concept of “businessworthiness” as a way to understand how business leaders can develop trust with communities, contribute to well-being, and create conditions for sustainable development.

The announced honorees include:

• Arif Naqvi, Founder and Group Chief Executive at The Abraaj Group, for his work in “promoting responsible business practices  by looking at the stakeholder, rather than exclusively taking a shareholder approach” in the private equity industry, and for leading Abraaj to partner with best in class organizations focused on entrepreneurship and job creation, healthcare, education and community engagement.
   
• Margaret Mussoi L. Groff of Brazil, the CFO of ITAIPU Binacional, for her work empowering female employees in the workplace, setting in place the company’s guidelines for gender equality, and increasing the company’s percentage of female managers from 10 to 21% in 9 years.

• Connie Hasemann of Denmark, the founder and CEO of Telehandelshuset AS, has advocated social change through sustainable business. Most importantly, she has worked to incorporate disabled employees into the company as equals, focusing on rehabilitation leading to employment.

• Dean Cycon of the U.S., the founder and owner of Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee, has worked for over 25 years to empower indigenous communities, proving through his fair trade coffee company that business can promote economic, social, and environmental change, while making a profit.

• Nadia Al-Sakkaf of Yemen, the Chief Editor of the Yemen Times, is a leading voice in Yemen on issues related to gender, development, media, and politics. She has also created publications including Breaking the Stereotype, to highlight the experience of Yemeni women as political candidates.

These five honorees join their twenty predecessors in leading the way to building stronger partnerships between business and society around the globe. The award ceremony will take play in Oslo on May 14, 2013.