PhD policy outputs so far

As I keep on saying to anyone who’d listen, a pandemic PhD is not something I’d wish on my worst enemy. Nevertheless, have been very clear since the beginning that the only way I would spend three++ years of my life on a project is to make sure that the effort addressed real needs on the ground.

Been v. fortunate to have gotten so much support, financially, spiritually, and otherwise. The PhD is primarily funded by the joint Philippine Department of Science and Technology – British Council’s joint Newton Agham scheme (incidentally here’s the #NewtonAgham closing anthology I recently edited, lol), with an explicit agreement that research outputs will be optimised for policy use. Given the sensitive nature of the topic (and the practical need to secure operational funding), activities in BARMM were facilitated through multiple research agreements signed between myself and relevant government institutions, INGOs, and CSOs, all of which have been cleared with DOST-SEI, the British Council, and the University of Cambridge Department of Land Economy. These agreements also facilitated fieldwork funding, data access, and collaborative partnerships with local research assistants and enumerators, many of whom are IDPs themselves. As of present writing, five partner organisations have signed a research and data sharing agreement granting me full permission to use anonymised data for scholarly publication as part of the PhD project, in academic journals and/or books, with full acknowledgment of the involved organisations. with the proviso that I would also produce policy papers ahead of the academic manuscript for immediate use.

So far, we’ve got at two publicly-available policy reports out the door, each corresponding to multiple chapters in the final PhD manuscript. Posting this here given recent requests, and in the spirit of full transparency.

Fernandez, M.C. (2023) Land rights, displacement, and transitional justice in the Bangsamoro: Insights from household-level mapping in Marawi City and Maguindanao. Davao City: Initiatives for International Dialogue.

Land dispossession is acknowledged as a root cause of historical and contemporary conflict in the Bangsamoro that must be jointly addressed by a wide range of stakeholders: the Government of the Philippines (GPH); the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); the recently-created Parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM); relevant provincial, municipal, and barangay authorities; alongside traditional leaders, grassroots institutions, and clans. In response, this report summarizes findings from rapid community and household-level participatory and IDP-led mapping processes and dialogues conducted from late 2021 to mid-2022 in displaced neighborhoods in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur and South Upi and Firis Complex in Maguindanao. We present parcel-level evidence on the effects of protracted displacement and land tenure instability on Mranaw, Tëduray-Lambangian, and Maguindanaon internally-displaced persons (IDPs), along with concrete recommendations to aid in the resolution of land conflicts and dispossession, from the point-of-view of displaced residents themselves.

Download: https://iidnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IID-Land-Research-updated.pdf

Fernandez, M.C. (2021) Land Governance as Moral Governance: Options for housing, land and property policy reform in the Bangsamoro transition. A Policy Brief. Cotabato City: Institute of Bangsamoro Studies with support from The Asia Foundation and USAID.

This document summarises the results of policy research undertaken by the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies (IBS) on the opportunities and constraints faced by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) related to housing, land and property (HLP) policy, with the goal of identifying executive and legislative actions that can be undertaken by the Bangsamoro Parliament in partnership with the Central Government, local communities and other actors.

Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YFfyK7FqlqBA6GQ5jAEydexS7ppLCwwM/view?usp=sharing

At least one or two more public reports should be out the door before the year is out, apart from the academic versions. Fingers crossed.

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.

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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.

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Inahan sa Sugilanon: Mother of the Fairytale

So happy that Louise has finally birthed this beautiful photobook, which has been a work in progress for the better part of the last three years. I’ve got quite a few personal projects waiting in the wings right now, but there are few things more inspiring than being a creative komadrona. 🙂

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Inahan sa Sugilanon: Mother of the Fairytale
Birthing a Green School Community

Images and Essay by Louise Far
Essays by Willa P. Maglalang, Janneke “Nex” Agustin and Nicanor Perlas
Essays edited by Ica Fernandez

Mother of the Fairytale is a 56-paged 8in x 10in book composed of 26 black and white images that tells the story of how a striving green school community in Davao City, Philippines advocates healthy and holistic education. It gives a glimpse of the journey of the school’s first teachers, the daily challenges and triumphs of little children, and the emerging sense of space and community among parents and friends of the school. Also included in the book are relevant essays on the book project itself, the experience of initiating Tuburan, early manifestations of holistic education through the story of Steiner education in the Philippines, and a macro perspective on education and the true need it must address.

http://motherofthefairytale.weebly.com/