The objectives of the Nonviolent Peaceforce Philippines Project include:
Mindanao island in the Philippines

1. To enhance the work of local peace teams through its presence and through reporting to the world about developments on the ground.
2. To contribute to the maintenance of the ceasefire(s) and to prevent the outbreak of, or to mitigate, new violence through means of unarmed civilian peacekeeping.
3. To support human rights reporting mechanisms in remote conflict areas and assist and connect local and international advocacy groups that work for peace with justice by responding to people’s grievances.
4. To localize grassroots conflicts so that they are resolved through dialogue at the lowest level and do not grow into larger crises.

Nonviolent Peaceforce partners on the ground

NP Workshop - Exploring Third-party nonviolent interventionNonviolent Peaceforce has been invited to Mindanao by a number of local organisations that are working for peace and justice. Some of them are formally involved in monitoring the cease-fire between the government and the MILF.

NP will support their work by sending internationals to work hand in hand with the local peace-keepers, and thereby contribute to their safety, and together with them to the maintenance of the ceasefire and the furthering of the peace process in the rather volatile situation.

NP ICPs will consult with the local partners in deciding priorities and activities as per the evolving conflict situation on the ground. To ensure legitimacy and accountability of the NP project to local civil society, an Advisory Board of prominent peace activists has been formed.

The first meeting of the Advisory Board took place on 21st of May 2007 and unanimously following role was accorded to the advisory board.

Final List of Agreed Functions of the Advisory Board:

• to give advise on plans and strategies
• to get feed-back on actual activity
• consultative body
• to act as a conferential or collegial body
• to recommend new issues and areas to cover.
• to review activities
• to operate on the basis of consensus in giving recommendations
• to give mutual moral support

Structure of the Board:

• President of the Board – also facilitator – Guiamel Alim
• Co-facilitator - Fr. Bert
• Secretary / Documenter- NP staff members

The president and co-facilitator will serve in their respective capacities for one year.

Communication: There will be continuous exchanges between Board and NP staff via phone, SMS and Email. Relevant information about events on the ground will be shared by whoever comes to know first.

Frequency of Meetings: The Board will meet once every three months.

What kind of activities will the team be doing?