Women's Meaningful Participation in Peace: Lessons from the Bangsamoro (Mindanao, Philippines)

"It is widely acknowledged that women's meaningful participation in peace processes is fundamental to ensuring a sustainable and transformative peace. However there is still much to be learned about how to move forward in practical terms."

This learning paper reflects on the achievements and the challenges of 4 civil society organisations in the Philippines that worked together on the Mindanao peace process between 2013 and 2016, with support from Conciliation Resources and the British Embassy in Manila. The purpose of the paper is to share reflections and learning from this experience to inform decisions on planning and the funding of other initiatives that contribute to women's meaningful participation in peace.

The context for the project: After 15 years of negotiations, and over 4 decades of armed conflict, in October 2012 the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) that laid out a road map to peace. Two years later, the parties signed a Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), which put an end to armed conflict by offering the Muslim minority in the Philippines significant levels of self-governance. In response to intense lobbying from civil society, and after intense negotiations, both parties agreed on the "right of women to meaningful political participation, and protection from all forms of violence" (section VI, article 1g of the FAB).

Between 2013 and 2016, Conciliation Resources engaged 4 civil society partner organisations in a series of activities to translate this provision to practice. Conciliation Resources' work in the Philippines is informed by gender analysis and a commitment to women's empowerment for a transformative peace process. They worked with: (i) Nisa Ul Haqq, a Bangsamoro women's group that uses Islamic teaching as a framework for women's and men's empowerment towards engagement on an international, national, regional and local level; (ii) Teduray Lambangian Women's Organization (TLWOI), a federation of 35 community-based women's organisations of indigenous peoples in the province of Maguindanao (Mindanao); (iii) United Youth of the Philippines-Women (UnYPhil-Women), a non-profit women-youth organisation; and (iv) Women Engaged in Action on 1325 (WE Act 1325), a national network of 39 women's groups and peace and human rights organisations, with a focus on implementing the Philippines National Action Plan (NAP) on Women Peace and Security.

The partners worked together along 3 strands of activities: (i) awareness raising, training, and consultations with women from different communities in the Bangsamoro region, to draft policy recommendations; (ii) advocacy and lobbying to peace implementation bodies and Congress to ensure that women's priorities and perspectives inform the institutionalisation of the peace agreement; and (iii) joint planning and assessment between all project partners every 2-3 months. Main project outputs included: (i) a document and video on Women's Contributions for a Better Bangsamoro for All, which was the product of 72 consultations with 2,750 women and a 2014 Women's Summit. This material informed the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission; (ii) a Women's Declaration on Participation (March 2015) and a research report on Operationalising women's meaningful participation in the Bangsamoro (September 2015), which were the results of 21 workshops with 700 women (2016). These documents informed the engagement and advocacy with the agreement implementing bodies; and (iii) a coffee table book that presents the stories of 32 women from different generations, geographical areas, and walks of life and highlights the significant roles they have been playing through the years in vertical and horizontal peace processes in Muslim Mindanao.

According to the paper, in carrying out these activities, partners developed skills for engaging and successfully influencing institutions such as the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, the Joint Normalisation Committee, the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission, and the Congress and the Senate. Furthermore, the project reportedly significantly increased partners' visibility and recognition among civil society organisations, government institutions, and the international community, which helped sustain the project achievements. Unexpected positive results included invitations for project partners to present their work at international events: the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict (June 2014) and the 15th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) in October 2015. The United Kingdom (UK) Foreign and Commonwealth Office commended this project for its approach and its achievements in their evaluation of the Human Rights and Democracy programme in 2015.

In summary, the paper explains that, based on the experiences described here, for an increased impact of the work on women's empowerment, it is fundamental to:

• Understand and respond to the diversity of perspectives, needs, and expectations among women. This is especially relevant and challenging in a context where custom and religion may clash with the purpose of women's empowerment. The 4 implementing partners in this project represented the diversity of the Bangsamoro. Two organisations are Muslim (Nisa Ul Haq and UnYPhil), one is non-Islamised indigenous, or IP (TLWOI), and the fourth one is a national network with mainly Christian constituents (WE Act 1325). It was fundamental to create spaces in which women of multiple identities and affiliations had the opportunity to share their perspectives and priorities and find common ground.
• Work in partnership with different yet complementary people and organisations. This requires a horizontal dialogue (as equals) between the donor agency, implementing organisations, and institutions, as well as skills and commitment to navigate complex social, cultural, and political relations. Some of the approaches and attitudes found to be important for a functioning partnership include: (i) participants' willingness to push the boundaries of their comfort zone. This requires patience, suspension of judgement to accommodate each other's uniqueness, and a proactive engagement among partners. It also requires a humble attitude towards a horizontal relationship, where all partners understand and respect the complementary nature of each participant; (ii) donor commitment beyond funding. (The British Embassy understood the value of engaging with civil society and perceiving the needs and expectations at the grassroots level, and thus disseminated the partner activities in the embassy’s monthly bulletin, attended meetings with the partners, and hosted partner events at the embassy); and (iii) built-in opportunities for joint analysis and reflection in the project design. There was space: to consult, collaborate, and do consensus-building; to gradually build trust and familiarity and cede/take control; and to enable effective collaboration and the ability to stick together to get through tough times.
• Engage with power-holders at all levels in order to change attitudes and behaviours. Partners realised their tendency to engage with like-minded organisations and policymakers, and the need to reach out to those who think differently from them. They learned that engagement requires understanding of power dynamics, asserting your own authority, resisting manipulation, and confronting internal contradictions. Their experiences made it clear that the impact of advocacy increases if it is embedded in the broader discourse of challenging unjust power relations.

In conclusion, the paper notes that the increased capacities and awareness among civil society (the 4 project partners as well as other organisations) have laid the foundations for what is to become a long-term endeavour. (The implementation of the 2014 Comprehensive Peace Agreement has been hampered by the inability of Congress to turn the peace agreement into law before the end of the Aquino administration - June 2016.) Though there are challenges to meaningful women's participation in peacebuilding in this context, "[a]n important gain has been to make significant steps towards the normalisation of women's participation. The project has contributed to shifts in the perceptions and actions of male, elite power-holders and influencers towards a level of acceptance of a women's right to participate and the value of women's engagement: key institutions such as the MILF, the transition panels and male-led civil society organisations are inviting women to participate in some activities and are more regularly consulting with them. As a result of training and mentoring, there have also been shifts in women's own perceptions, knowledge, skills and actions that have resulted in their increasingly diverse and more meaningful participation." It is noted here that, looking forward, "[t]he biggest challenge, but at the same time opportunity for Mindanao-based civil society organisations in general, and for the ones advocating for women's empowerment in particular, is to move away from a reactive approach to the latest humanitarian or political emergency or donor policy priority, to more long-term strategic planning that can sustain proactive efforts to ensure sustainable, inclusive and transformative peace."