Philippines

International Alert’s leadership team in the Philippines will now pursue peacebuilding work as a new, fully local organisation: the Council for Climate and Conflict Action Asia (CCLiCAA) and Alert has closed its registration in the country.

Over 13 years of working in the Philippines, we focused on addressing rebellion-related and community level conflict in Mindanao through research and analyses, advocacy, capacity building and facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes.

This has included innovative conflict monitoring systems (Conflict Alert and the Critical Events Monitoring System) to understand the causes and cost of conflict, and how these can be mitigated, as well as cutting-edge research studies on shadow economies and violent extremism in Mindanao.

We supported conflict-sensitive economic governance strategies among communities, local governments and companies to mitigate conflict risks around company operations in communities, and formal peace processes through political mapping, dialogue and mediation across conflict divides, peace constituency building, conflict monitoring and strategic advice.

And we worked to leverage women’s voices in conflict-sensitive economic governance, by exposing the direct and indirect effects of violence on women, shedding light on the critical involvement of women in the survival of the community and economy amid war, and reinforcing the powerful role they play in preventing conflict and the spread of violent extremism.

Key milestones include the publication of Conflict’s long game: A decade of violence in the Bangsamoro and the passage into law of the Marawi Compensation Bill in February 2022, implementing a reparations payment scheme for residents affected by the five-month fighting between government troops and militants in 2017.

“The formalisation of our transition from an international to a local organisation is a significant milestone, with the legacy of our work embedded within a fully locally led peacebuilding organisation,” explains our ongoing Philippines Country Director, Nikki de la Rosa. “The task is not finished, the vision has not been reached, and the mission continues to hold profound significance. We look forward to continuing this work and to our continued collaboration and partnership as CCLiCAA.”

Featured publication

Conflict’s Long Game: A Decade of Violence in the Bangsamoro

Why does violent conflict persist in the Bangsamoro? Ten years of granular evidence has presented a trendline of violent conflict during the most delicate and significant period in the contemporary history of Muslim Mindanao.

Featured blog

Unending struggle for land in the Bangsamoro

Data collected over 10 years show distinct patterns in how land disputes can turn violent and spiral into more violence, prolonging and widening the impact of the original conflict. These patterns reveal how enduring land conflicts can destabilize a region that is in a conflict-to-peace transition.