How we work.
Our beliefs.
The perspective that guides our work.
We believe that:
While some disagreements around natural resources are genuinely intractable, many of today’s resource-related conflicts can be resolved.
The most sustainable route to resolution is by fostering the right kind of dialogue between parties in conflict.
Through such dialogue, parties can align around mutually beneficial win-wins that unlock conflict and create the basis for sustainable partnerships.
Our approach.
Applying a unique combination of expertise in resources and resolutions.
We bring together what we believe is a useful combination of skills: firstly, expertise in the complex and often technical set of social, economic, political, and environmental issues around natural resource assets and endowments; and secondly, expertise in dialogue and conflict resolution processes.
Together these skillsets help us both to spot where potential win-wins may lie and to facilitate pathways for parties to unearth them.
Specifically, we assist companies, governments, civil society, and international bodies to:
- Anticipate and avoid conflict. For example, we can help organisations strengthen their understanding of the perspectives of outside parties and the risk of future conflict. We can also support early-stage dialogue and joint ‘visioning’ exercises to help build a shared fact base and underlying trust.
- Chart a path to resolution. For existing conflicts, our initial focus is likely to be to develop a ‘Resolution Roadmap’, based on deep engagement with the parties, setting out a proposed dialogue process and also potential win-wins to explore.
- Resolve division through dialogue. We can then support implementation of the ‘Resolution Roadmap’, facilitating different forms of dialogue such as mediation, collaborative problem solving, and negotiation. The emphasis again is on building alignment around win-wins.
- Sustain trust and alignment. Once agreement has been achieved, it may require support over time to avoid an unravelling. For example, this may be through evaluation and monitoring, capacity building or ongoing dialogue.
We also convene events, and provide commentary and thought leadership to share good practice and shape the broader debate on resource-related conflict and challenges.
Balance and impartiality.
Our commitment to impartiality, balance and finding win-wins helps us bring parties together
Balanced oversight and delivery: Our Global Advisory Council comprises respected figures from diplomacy and academia as well as industry to ensure balance. Delivery teams likewise integrate a diverse range of perspectives and skillsets, including trusted local experts and civil society figures where relevant, plus credible international mediators/facilitators. This helps us to build relationships on all sides.
Phased assignments: We implement a phased process to ensure that dialogue is feasible, ethical and desirable. Where we are unable to build trust across a range of stakeholder groups, we will discontinue our support.
Principled approach: We are guided by strong ethical standards, ensuring voluntary participation, the establishment and enforcement of ground rules for dialogue, and the exclusion of assignments involving extreme power imbalances or bad faith.
Resource Resolutions 