	What We Do & How We Do It Origins Governing Board Partners

We help women in regions of conflict and post-conflict build businesses to sustain their families and strengthen their abilities to foster peace.

Transferring Knowledge and Know-How and Opening Up International Markets

The Business Council for Peace (Bpeace) believes that entrepreneurship is a foundation for creating hope and stability in regions where conflict exists.

Bpeace gives business people the opportunity to have an active role in building peace.

At Bpeace it doesn't matter what your political affiliation is, or what your views are of your country’s foreign policy. We are an apolitical group of more than 200 volunteers. What we share is a belief that business can create peace. Why? As Clint Eastwood said in A Fistful of Dollars, "Once a man has some money, peace begins to sound good to him."

We have programs underway in Afghanistan and Rwanda.

Who We Are

Bpeace, founded in 2002 and headquartered in New York City, is a non-profit international network of volunteer business people.

What We Believe

Our belief is that when women are stronger economically, they have a stronger voice for peace in their local communities and societies.

Our Strategy

In conflict or post-conflict regions, we select and assist the businesswomen most likely to succeed. These are women who demonstrate high potential by already operating businesses (against all odds and sometimes cultural norms), being literate in their own language and demonstrating a real commitment to creating jobs for others in their country.

We call these emerging entrepreneurs Fast Runners, and have built the three-year Bpeace program around each of them.

Bpeace Fast Runner Program: A Three Year Commitment

What We Provide

Through the volunteer efforts of our members, Bpeace provides businesswomen distance mentoring, training and networking opportunities; improves access to financing; helps develop local and international markets for their products and services and creates global awareness of their remarkable talent and courage. Most importantly, we provide these women with advocacy training and tools to connect the dots between business and peace in their countries.

The Roles Members Play

Bpeace gives business people the opportunity to have an active role in building peace.

We have a diverse portfolio of members:

Some are in a position to devote significant volunteer hours...
...Others enthusiastically support the volunteers with ideas, connections and fundraising.
Some members directly translate what they do in their for-profit life to Bpeace volunteer work, whether that is training, PR, technology, product development or retailing...
...Others pitch in where they are needed to help grow the organization, including fundraising and outreach to partners.

Our activities:

Most Bpeace work—even mentoring of Afghan and Rwandan women—is performed virtually.
Mentors have diverse business backgrounds and make at least a one-year commitment. Mentors themselves receive training as well as ongoing support by Bpeace's Program Director, Marla Gitterman.
We are organized into Action Teams that regularly meet through conference calls and often in-person in New York, and occasionally in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.
To date, about 10% of our membership has participated on group missions, paying their own way to Rwanda and Afghanistan.
In 2007, we will field at least two missions to Afghanistan and Rwanda.

Bpeace members focus their efforts on:

Helping women in conflict regions turn their dreams, skills and ideas into businesses by providing strategic thinking, training and mentoring. We assist in developing business opportunities and creating business plans, aid in applications for loans and grants, connect them to other NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that can help with capacity building and locate tools and materials for their business concept.
Opening up international markets for their products by helping them shape products to appeal to global markets and connecting them with exporters, manufacturers, retail distributors and consumers.
Generating global awareness for their products and services through branding, public relations, marketing and coverage in the news and entertainment media. All of this drives sales for products and places real revenue and economic opportunity into their hands. In the process, Bpeace tells the women's stories, highlighting their remarkable courage and efforts to rebuild their countries in the face of enormous past devastation and hardship.
Fostering independence and business sustainability by training them to eventually take over their own marketing and business-development activities.

We achieve true success when women in these areas of conflict can sustain their own businesses without any ongoing assistance from Bpeace and we have provided them with the advocacy tools to connect the dots between business and peace.

Put your business skills to work in a new and rewarding way.
Volunteer your time and join us.

When Bpeace first met Bakhtnazera, she was living in a 3-room apartment with 14 others, and had been earning $50/month teaching part-time. Bpeace helped her apply for a program with CARE, and Bakhtnazera now runs a ready-to-wear shop in Kabul, supervising a workshop of 30 widows. She has been able to move her family into an apartment of their own. She is one of Afghanistan's "fast runner" businesswomen we want to encourage. We believe in expanding the skills of top-tier Afghan businesswomen like Bakhtnazera, because they are in the best position to hire others. A year after we first met Bakhtnazera, Bpeace member Laurie Chock went back to Kabul and reported: "Seeing Bakhtnazera and her husband, Hanagha, in their shop bursting with pride of ownership and accomplishment reinforces the powerful work that Bpeace is doing in Afghanistan." Today, a Bpeace volunteer continues to mentor Bakhtnazera, and is helping her expand into the home décor market to take advantage of the construction boom in Kabul.
Photo © Paula Lerner 2005. All Rights Reserved.