Research: Evaluation of Nonviolent Peaceforce Philippines
In February 2010, swisspeace conducted an evaluation of the Nonviolent Peaceforce’s activities in the Mindanao province. Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) Philippines and its program activities were designed in 2007 to offer civilian protection and to support local structures and process of human rights protection, cease-fire monitoring, early warning and violence reduction in the Mindanao province. Being the only international non-governmental organization working with and living in close proximity to the most conflict-affected population in Mindanao, NP was able to support and enhance local structures to achieve the above mentioned goals as well as cross-community dialogue. NP also accepted the offer in late 2009 by the conflict parties – the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – to join the civilian protection component of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) of the peace process. This is a direct expression and result of NP’s successful contributions to violence reduction and non-violence in the last two years.
The aim of swisspeace’s evaluation was threefold: To assess the achievement of objectives and the effectiveness of NP’s work in Mindanao and the perception of NP among a sample of partner organizations, stakeholders, conflict parties and beneficiaries. Secondly, to offer the basis and opportunity for collaborative sharing and learning about the latest thinking on conflict analysis and strategic program design as well as monitoring in peacebuilding. Thirdly, based on the mission’s findings, recommendations for NP’s future work were made. For this evaluation, interviews and focus group discussions with a wide range of local stakeholders, beneficiaries, conflict parties, NP staff and partner organizations were conducted in Manila and Mindanao. A one-day workshop on international lessons learned on program design and effectiveness of peace practice was conducted for national and international staff and management of NP. The findings have been published in a report. We will provide a link to that report as soon as one becomes available.