Building Sustainable Peace through Business Linkages among Micro-Entrepreneurs: Case Studies of Micro-Enterprises in the North of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Literature on peacebuilding emphasises the need for stakeholders at all levels of society to be engaged in the peace and reconciliation process for peace to be sustainable. Policy-makers around the globe strategically employ entrepreneurship, particularly self-employment and small enterprises development, to economically empower the communities in post-conflict areas. At the same time, researchers in the fields of entrepreneurship and small enterprise development have identified ‘networking’ as an important factor for the success of entrepreneurs. This paper examines the role played by business linkages among micro-entrepreneurs and its contribution to sustainable peacebuilding, including the development of business and social linkages among entrepreneurs from the North of Sri Lanka.

Keywords:

• peacebuilding and reconciliation
• post-conflict areas
• social capital
• weak ties
• strong ties
• social and business networks
• business linkages
• micro-enterprise
• Sri Lanka

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Director and Team of the Nucleus Foundation. Thanks also go to the entrepreneurs who shared their experiences and insights. Special thanks to the review panel for their constructive feedback on the earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1 Total resettlement by 31 August 2016 in both regions includes 253,231 families which consist of 882,392 persons: http://resettlementmin.gov.lk/, 20 December 2016.

2 Weak ties are a powerful source through which networks are developed and provide opportunities to those in these networks to benefit (Granovetter 1973; 1985).

3 Rani. Personal interview. Mullaitivu, 1 June 2016.

4 Nithi. Personal interview. Jaffna, 15 June 2016.

5 Luxmi. Personal interview. Vavuniya, 21 May 2016.

6 Shanthan. Personal interview. Mannar, 10 June 2016.

7 Ranjini. Personal interview. Kilinochchi, 2 June 2016.