Philippines
Development and Peacebuilding in Mindanao, Philippines
In Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, a bitter independence struggle by various Muslim factions has been waged for five centuries against successive occupiers. Due to twentieth century land-grab schemes and the subsequent influx of settlers to the region, the majority of Mindanao's population is now predominantly Christian, a regional issue that fuels the anger of poor and displaced local Muslims and gives rise to separatist movements.
In January 2006, KCP partnered with the Department of Agrarian Reform of the Philippine government to deliver a ten-day conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding training program in Mindanao for development experts representing all ethnic communities, national and local government units and NGOs.
Local development workers are on the frontlines of inter-related struggles of poverty, depletion of resources, competition between ethnic groups for land and resource rights, and external interests whose
business plans ignore core needs of the local population. Conflict often sabotages years of exacting development work, and so creating methods to surface and manage conflict without violence and revenge is critical to the future of the region. This training emphasized the role of development personnel in promoting peaceful coexistence by developing conflict sensitive interventions in resource management and sustainable rural improvement programs. Realizing that they could actually make a difference in their communities, and motivated by this first exposure to the needs, fears and troubled histories of their colleagues, group members created multi-ethnic team-based work plans for each provincial region. This marked the beginning of a process of conflict sensitive interventions to address the development needs of their beneficiaries while reducing conflict and promoting tolerance and peace. Participants also initiated a training program of their own to introduce more development workers to methods for promoting peace and justice while engaged in their professional development activities.
