at the service of Artisans worldwide with the goal of equipping them in their efforts
to rethink peace and propose new modes of action
« To finance by awarding gifts or research grants where the funded actions contribute significantly and innovatively to the progress of Humankind via science and social development »: such are the statutory goals of the Foundation.
The Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind
Facing the extent and complexity of the challenges to Humanity, the Foundation does more than help get things done; it creates a network to help bring about action. It supports a practice of amassing expertise and know-how, thus constructing a collective intelligence, so that actors of peace can mobilize their knowledge and act in a more efficient manner for the progress of Man.
Desiring to find the means to contribute in a concrete manner to peace-building in crisis countries, and deciding to unite and share the different elements of an Art of Peace, the FPH developed, between 1990 and 2002, a « Peace » program based on four principle axes :
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The organization of peace workshops in countries coming out of civil war;
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The construction of socio-professional networks in favor of peace;
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The support of educational peace projects;
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The elaboration, using the collection of experiences, of different components of the art of peace.
For the period from 2004-2010, the FPH has announced a distancing from thematically focused programs to benefit a more integrated initiative. A « Peace » program in and of itself no longer exists ; nevertheless, a focus on peace is still present and continues to drive most of its actions.
In fact, for the FPH, building peace is written into its global objective to construct a world-wide community based on common values and objectives. This world-wide community, « the foundation of a peaceful society » is the necessary, essential prerequisite for avoiding the development of increasingly violent confrontations between the different parts of the planet.(1)
On the basis of this conviction of the importance of the construction of peace as one of the major stakes of the 21st century, it’s a question for the Foundation to support, as it did for other topics, the emergence of alliances likely to advance this project, to take part in it, to build it and to invest in it.
For this reason, the orientations of the FPH stress, in particular, the importance of procedure. The procedures used to build peace are not the same as those that lead to war. Constructing strategies of peace requires methodologies suitable for instating dialogue in order to debase the perception of the enemy and to bring out peace strategies – unavoidably complex as they concern many dimensions. In fact, the Art of Peace is an art of managing complexity : the capacity to resolve dilemmas and to construct compromises.
The Foundation’s methodological support touches upon two areas :
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The creation, at the service of the alliance of peace-makers, of a website of resources of peace, < irenees.net> being the first prototype.
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The support of future peace workshops.
Notes :
(1) Pierre Calame, « The participation of the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation in favor of the construction of peace between 2003 et 2010 », Fiche Bip 2625, October 2004