Category: Peace and Development

OpenBangsamoro.com

We are pleased to launch OpenBangsamoro.com, an open-source portal for geospatial, statistical, and administrative regional data in support of the transformation of the ARMM to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The portal is a result of the ARMM-Bangsamoro Transition Datathon, an initiative spearheaded by the ARMM Regional Government through its Regional Planning and Development Office (ARMM-RPDO) to consolidate and evaluate available administrative, statistical, and framework geospatial data as well as existing development plans and studies about the region.
As a citizen accompaniment to the 34-volume ARMM Transition Report turned over by the ARG to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority last February 26, 2019, OpenBangsamoro.com contains an initial set of maps, technical data, and policy recommendations, many of which are found in the ARMM Transition Report and its digital mirror at armmtransition.ph.
Initial work on the datasets was authorized by the ARMM Regional Government and was facilitated by a technical team supported by The Asia Foundation and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This is a work-in-progress and more information will be uploaded as they become available.
OpenBangsamoro.com is also accompanied by a technical paper that presents options for the practical use of open geospatial, statistical, and participatory data for decision-making as the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) transitions into the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Recommendations cover three key points:
1. Decision-making for regional transformation should be based on usable and open information.
2. To be fully usable for decision-making, development-related data must be spatial, multi-scale, cross-sectoral, culture-and-conflict sensitive, and open and shared.
3. The Bangsamoro transition from 2019 to 2022 is an opportunity to establish systems built on open data as the cornerstone of open governance as the BTA, national government, and citizens need to make simultaneous decisions across multiple plans and platforms at the same time.
Ultimately, establishing a culture of open data for decision-making is a concrete way of delivering on the MILF’s commitment to shift from traditional transactional politics to a truly transformative governance that reflects Bangsamoro aspirations for meaningful self-rule.
We thank the outgoing ARMM Regional Government led by former Regional Governor Mujiv Sabbihi Hataman, former Executive Secretary Atty Laisa Masuhud Alamia, former Rpdo Armm Executive Director and ARMM Transition Team lead Engr. Baintan Adil-Ampatuan, and all the other leaders and technical officers of the ARMM for facilitating the release of datasets for open use. We also thank the members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, OPAPP, NEDA, HUDCC, and the provincial governments who participated in datathon activities.
We pray that these maps, datasets, and reports can be useful for the many decisions that the Bangsamoro need to make in the weeks, months, and years to come.
Download briefer here: http://bit.ly/openbangsamoro

OpenMarawi.com

 

How should Marawi be rebuilt? For whom? And with whom?

30424944_10211281562863095_6168709883200558548_o

This is what the last few months have come to.

  1. All available statistical and geospatial data on Marawi and Lanao del Sur have been uploaded on www.openmarawi.com. Free, open source, and to be constantly updated in the coming weeks.
  2. Almost a year after the Siege and six months after the last bomb fell on the city,  Assad Baunto, David Garcia, and I have finally released a policy note summarizing options for decision-making on land, housing, property, and urban design. Maps were made with JR Dizon, Mikko Tamura, Bj Bantog Gochoco, Ysmael Mangorsi, and representatives from Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Download briefer here: https://goo.gl/iRYXkS

issuesperscale_online

Thank you to the many jedis in government, the academe, and civil society who made this possible, along with The Asia Foundation and DFAT-Australia.

To the leadership of the city government of Marawi, the provincial government of Lanao del Sur, and the Regional Government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao–my deepest gratitude for letting us outsiders work with you.

Island Wilayat Rising? Stemming the tide of violent extremism after Marawi

Thanks to a few twists of fate, I’ve got a short (read: heavily redacted) piece on Marawi  published by the Australian National University’s East Asia Forum. It comes in several weeks later than I’d like, but at any rate, I’m posting here an earlier unedited and less circumspect version, written roughly two, three weeks ago.

—

Marawi was a victory for Islamist extremism in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The next choices taken by the Philippine government will determine the extent of its spread.

 

It has been more than sixty days since the outbreak of violence in the Islamic City of Marawi, just over 500 miles south of Manila, and kilometre zero of the island-region of Mindanao. What started in the morning of May 23 has led to over 314,000 persons displaced. More than half of the lakeside city is in ruins; approximately 100 civilians and hostages are still trapped in the crossfire. Aerial bombardments and house-to-house fighting continue. As the first widespread incident of urban violence in the Philippines—its partial precursors being Zamboanga in 2013, Ipil in 1995 and the razing of Jolo in 1974—the impact of the Marawi siege is unprecedented, not least in its implications to the rise of violent extremism in the region.

While the reported death of Abu Bakr Baghdadi and the jihadi group’s losses at Mosul and Raqqa signal a transformation of Daesh presence in the Middle East, Marawi by all accounts was a victory for islamist terrorism in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. From a ragtag group of ‘black flag wannabes’ that could barely stage a bomb attack on the US Embassy in Manila in 2016, the Maute group now has enough street cred to attract international interest and support. They have achieved what others have failed to do: signal to the disgruntled and marginalised that violent extremism, particularly through urban warfare, is a viable path forward.

Continue reading “Island Wilayat Rising? Stemming the tide of violent extremism after Marawi” →