The impact of conflict on businesses and the economy is one that does not get much attention due to scanty statistics available on how much losses are suffered during conflicts. Uganda for example, has witnessed its fair share of conflict over the years, but it is difficult to even try to put a figure to how much the country has lost both directly and in lost opportunities, for example in the Northern Uganda war.
At the business level, conflict does not have to be on a large violent scale but there is conflict in the work place and in businesses that often leads to negative competition, lack of productivity as well as wastage of time and resources to try and resolve the said conflicts.
The recent strike by traders over the Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVOC) for almost a week is an example of conflict in the business sector, whereby there was a lack of understanding between the traders and the government.
Building Wealth; Five Ugandan Entrepreneurs Democratizing Access to Investments.This went ahead to cost a lot of money to the economy, a loss the country has no statistics about. International Alert a London based charity and international non-governmental organisation working to prevent and end violent conflict across the globe, through their Business for Peace Project is now making an effort to understand and therefore mitigate costs of conflicts to businesses.
According to David Okidi, the Business and Peace Manager at International Alert, the project is one of the three projects the organization implements in all the countries it operates.
“Our mandate is concentrated along three projects namely Business for Peace, Oil and Gas as well as Advisory Consortium on Conflict Sensitivity (ACCS) which is about monitoring conflict and peace indicators of the recovery process in Northern Uganda,
