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Abstract
A Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA) was instrumental in advancing peace and development in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) communities of the Philippines. It is a region beset with organised violence due to long-running family and clan feuds known as ridos. This violence has not only caused suffering to the local population in terms of loss of life but has also greatly impacted on its social, economic and cultural life. The PCIA provided a process whereby the community, especially the feuding families, assumed responsibility for rido-related acts and committed themselves to settling the conflict. In the process, PCIA has facilitated not only ‘community-building’ but also the ‘capacity-building’ of local people wherey they have assumed full responsibility for their peace and development. Moreover, through the PCIA process, women's role, despite being ‘invisible’ in this deeply patriarchal society, proved to be an essential component of community peacebuilding.
Notes
1 CO-M is a non-government organisation that has been at the forefront of community development in Mindanao. It functions as a training institution that provides capacity-building and orientation to community organisers and development workers. Since 1999, CO-M has focused its work in conflict-ridden areas of central Mindanao, promoting a community-based approach to peacebuilding.
2 CO-M later partnered with another local NGO, the IDS, in the implementation of CRP.
3 Norma Constantino, then the CO-M Coordinator, was the lead person in the settlement of this rido.
4 To protect the identity of the actors involved in the conflicts, pseudonyms are used in this study.
5 Refers to the obligation of a family to appease the loss of life as well as damage to life and property of another family affected by a rido.
6 ‘Blood money’ refers to the payment of cash towards appeasing the loss of life.
7 A section below presents an analysis of the women's role in this settlement.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Maria Cecilia Macabuac-Ferolin
NORMA V. CONSTANTINO was formerly the Mindanao Coordinator of CO-M. She is now a freelance development worker based in Mindanao
Norma V. Constantino
MARIA CECILIA MACABUAC-FEROLIN, PhD, is currently a faculty member at Mindanao State University—Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). She has undertaken several peace and development studies in Mindanao.