How can the international community better act to halt attacks on aid workers and hijacking of vital supplies, while ensuring humanitarian access to vulnerable civilian populations caught in the midst of violent conflicts? In the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue’s (HD Centre) latest podcast, Mr Dennis McNamara, Senior Humanitarian Adviser at the HD Centre, argues that humanitarian mediation offers both a means to reduce conflict-related suffering, while potentially feeding in to wider conflict mediation efforts at the political level.
Humanitarian mediation – which is the conduct of conflict-related mediation with a humanitarian agenda and purpose – is “often an easier and more productive entry point than conflict resolution in a volatile and unresolved situation, where there may be little common political ground,” Mr McNamara explains. Moreover, he notes that despite the overall lack of institutional engagement with non-state actors in conflict areas to date, the activities of the HD Centre’s Humanitarian Mediation Programme have shown that rebel groups generally “welcome the chance to talk”.
“Going to… the field, eating roast goat in a wadi under the trees on the Chad border in the middle of a desert with armed [combatants] in full battle dress helps to build up trust, confidence and credibility.”
Mr McNamara reflects on the role of humanitarian mediation in the context of broader conflict resolution processes and shares firsthand lessons from his own experiences speaking to rebel groups. He points to concrete achievements of the humanitarian mediation programme in altering combatant behaviour and considers how this ‘niche’ activity could be expanded in the future to address widespread civilian suffering and humanitarian challenges in a range of ongoing conflicts.
The podcast is available for download on the HD Centre website. Further information on the Humanitarian Mediation Programme can be found at http://www.hdcentre.org/projects/humanitarian-mediation.
