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POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION (MaximsNews Network)

A building damaged in the war in Kosovo. UN Photo: 143559: Oliver Salgado

     

FRIDE: CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY IN POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION CONTEXTS - BY JAVIER MIER SAINZ AND AITOR PÉREZ RUIZ: 15/06/2009 (MaximsNews Network)

 

 

 

       UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 15 June 2009 - FRIDE, the European think tank for global action, has published a study on corporate responsibility in post-war reconstruction by Javier Mier Sainz and Aitor Pérez Ruíz, which was supported by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID, by its acronym in Spanish), in order to examine the issues of the post-war reconstruction in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other locations carried out between 1995-2005 and to analyze in particular: the rebuilding of the Mostar Bridge, (with the support of the World Bank and UNESCO), and the rebuilding of electrical infrastructures, with the support of Spanish cooperation.  

 

When a business is hired by official aid agencies, should it limit itself to handing over goods and lending its services in exchange for an agreed price? Or should it collaborate more widely with the general aims of aid? 

 

In Bosnia and Herzegovina and other post-war reconstruction contexts, where donors’ conferences have mobilised significant amounts of aid towards rebuilding physical infrastructures, should contractor companies not be recognised as agents of development, with the huge potential that this entails?  

 

The results of this study suggest that businesses contracted by an aid agency are sometimes granted additional responsibility beyond their terms of reference.

 

Therefore, their actions in terms of management, human resources, subcontracting and public relations have a positive or negative effect on rebuilding the country in question in socioeconomic terms and, ultimately, on peace building.  

 

Download the full version of this publication, available in Spanish (80 kB)

 

Javier Mier Sainz holds a BA degree in Law from the Complutense University in Madrid and a diploma in Administration from FTC Kaplan Business School in the UK.  His professional career has involved over 14 years of experience in international organisations such as the EU or the UN, working in the fields of international conflict resolution and the promotion of human rights.

He has directed and supervised multinational teams, participating in the creation and implementation of projects such as the establishment of an international court for war crimes, national level judicial and fiscal reforms, and the organisation of the first post-conflict democratic elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is currently combining his duties as a long-term international electoral observer with work as an international expert on topics concerning justice and home affairs.

Aitor Pérez Ruíz holds a BA degree in International Economy (from the Universities of Zaragoza and Paris II) and a Masters degree in European Union studies (from the Royal Institute of European Studies in Spain).  He has spent ten years working in the field of development cooperation at both research centres and development NGOs.

He is author of the book La Participación en la Ayuda Oficial al Desarrollo de la UE (“Participation in the EU’s Official Development Aid”, Zaragoza University Press, 2004) and is head of the FRIDE project on Corporate Social Responsibility and Development. He specialises in non-state aid agents.

He currently works as a researcher for the humanitarian aid programme at FRIDE and as an independent consultant for NGOs.

FRIDE is a think tank based in Madrid that aims to provide the best and most innovative thinking on Europe’s role in the international arena. It strives to break new ground in its core research interests of peace and security, human rights, democracy promotion, and development and humanitarian aid, and mould debate in governmental and non-governmental bodies through rigorous analysis, rooted in the values of justice, equality and democracy.

Labels: United Nations, MaximsNews Network, U.N., FRIDE, Javier Mier Sainz, Aitor Pérez Ruiz, Bosnia and Herzegovina, development aid, development cooperation, Eastern Europe, Russia, World Bank, UNESCO, Spain, Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, AECID, post-war reconstruction, peace building

 

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