Principle 3: Humility.

 

Humility: International actors should adopt the role of midwives, not "architects" or "designers" of peace, proactively enabling peacemaking processes while ensuring the well-being and security of all. Peacemaking is open-ended, dynamic, adaptive and unpredictable and needs to be approached with humility. All peacemakers, both insiders and outsiders, must be empathetic, compassionate, open to alternative perspectives and respectful of the efforts of others, in their deeds as well as in their words. They must also be aware of the limitations of programmes and policies to achieve change in a complex environment. 

- Implications and recommendations -

National actors, including political, economic and social elites, power holders, and security actors should formally acknowledge the legitimate aspirations of the population, the limits to their power and influence, and their responsibility to act for the common good.

International actors must be highly - and visibly - sensitive to the nuances of particular contexts and to their own limitations and biases. They should embrace the contributions of local actors and the different time scales on which peace processes and peacemaking unfold.

Engagement with armed actors, conflicting parties and power holders requires an understanding of what different elements in these groups want and must be balanced by engagement with constituencies promoting peace, especially those groups that have been excluded from formal negotiations and processes, in an inclusive and secure environment.

Humility requires concrete actions to set aside organisational imperatives and funding models that foster interorganisational competition rather than collaboration. Recognising that organisations have varied capacities, risk appetites and mandates can collectivly ensure that all the vital ingredients of a peace process are supported. 

These three principles resonate within diverse sociocultural and historical contexts. They are also often absent from programmes and policies that place a premium on top-down and vertical accountability, abstract and technocratic indicators for design and measurement, and forms of managerial expertise (unemotional, calculating) that diminish the importance of relationships of respect, dignity, and reciprocity. Incorporating the three principles into new ways of peacemaking can involve delicate balances and trade-offs between local approaches that privilege collective and group rights over the autonomy and equal rights of individuals. This will involve all actors re-examining and recalibrating how they engage individually and institutionally and adopting ethically responsive peacemaking practices on an ongoing basis to respect the equal status and dignity of individuals and groups.