DAVAO CITY, 16 December 2022—A United Nations (UN) Philippines peacebuilding joint programme in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) marked its completion with results that have significantly contributed to Normalization under the peace agreement as well as inclusive peacebuilding in the Bangsamoro region.  Implemented for two years by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Women, with support from the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund, the joint programme called Supporting Conflict Transformation Toward Effective Peace-building in the Bangsamoro Region (STEP-BARMM) focused on harnessing the potential of women, indigenous communities and youth, strengthening capacities of key regional and local institutions to respond to conflict during the BARMM’s transition period and building evidence to better understand the evolving dynamics of conflict in the region. Specifically, the programme empowered 2000 former women combatants from the Bangsamoro Islamic Women’s Auxiliary Brigade (BIWAB) to successfully transition to civilian life as successful entrepreneurs, para-social workers with the Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD) and peace and gender champions in their communities via support to 15 BIWAB cooperatives generating sustainable livelihoods, and training on Gender-based Violence and peacebuilding. This is a key objective of the peace agreement’s Normalization track. See how STEP-BARMM has supported women former combatants with socioeconomic activities STEP-BARMM mainstreamed conflict understanding and prevention in BARMM institutions. It worked with the Bangsamoro Women’s Commission to operationalize and localize the Regional Action Plan on Women Peace and Security in 22 local government units (LGUs) and supported the Bangsamoro Youth Commission (BYC) in developing the BYC Youth Policy Manual to engage youth in shaping future peace and development initiatives. Furthermore, STEP-BARMM helped to establish the Peace, Security, and Reconciliation Office under the Office of the BARMM Chief Minister to reinforce security and conflict mediation under the transition. At the same time, STEP-BARMM has fostered community resilience in conflict hotspots by strengthening community policing and establishing or reviving local institutions as inclusive platforms with community partners, non-Moro Indigenous Peoples community groups, and women conflict mediators to address increasingly inter-linked conflict and climate security risks requiring humanitarian-development-peacebuilding approaches. “STEP BARMM has indeed provided an effective platform for stakeholders to come together and fostered synergies and partnerships that will contribute to the creation of a more inclusive platform for peacebuilding in BARMM,” said Director General Engr. Mohajirin T. Ali of the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA). “In order to sustain these important peacebuilding milestones, I emphasize the importance of strong partnership and collaboration between government and non-government stakeholders, as well as a whole-of-government/whole-of-society effort,” Ali added. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Philippines Gustavo Gonzalez said, “Through the UN Peacebuilding Fund, the UN agencies have truly come together with government, civil society and communities to leverage our collective strength to support the Bangsamoro in the pursuit of peace as demonstrated by these achievements.” The UN Philippines, guided by its Cooperation Framework with the Philippines, called the Socioeconomic and Peacebuilding Framework (SEPF), is committed to supporting normalization in the Bangsamoro region, reducing community-based conflicts, addressing community security and strengthening community economic empowerment. Tristan Burnett, Chief of Mission of IOM Philippines, said, “The culmination of STEP-BARMM is an occasion to celebrate the achievements of this important initiative, present the policy results and most importantly identify ways forward with our BARMM partners. We are extremely thankful to have spent the last few days with our partners and stakeholders that have played a critical role in achieving the objective and deliverables of the project which has been supported by the UN Secretary General’s Peace-building Fund.” Meanwhile, Dr Leila Joudane, UNFPA Country Representative in the Philippines, “congratulated the joint programme partners “for the achievements made during the two-year implementation of this STEP-BARMM Project and we will together build on the gains from this joint programme. Let us continue the advocacy to translate the policy recommendations into gender-responsive and locally-inclusive legislations, policies and programs with the meaningful participation of empowered women and young people.” Ma. Rosalyn Messina, Country Programme Coordinator of UN Women. said that the joint programme “showcased what we can all do together to promote peace and transform communities we serve, especially our women.” At the end of implementation of STEP-BARMM, the UN Philippines recommends, among others, improvements in the representation, inclusion and meaningful participation of women in BARMM institutions such as the parliament, ministries/offices and other local special bodies; securing the rights and well-being of non-Moro Indigenous Peoples through policy development and implementation, improving access to education and fast-tracking the passage of the Indigenous People Code to address the important ancestral domain issue inter alia; capacity-building for barangays’ disaster response capacities, particularly through the provision of more training, provision of livelihood support and addressing local security issues. “As the Bangsamoro government's socioeconomic development planning and policy coordination authority, the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority is already taking proactive steps to ensure that key concerns on inclusivity and meaningful participation of all sectors are taken into account as we chart the Bangsamoro region’s medium-term development plan- the 2nd Bangsamoro Development Plan,” Ali said. STEP-BARMM was designed to meet the difficulties posed by COVID-19, which directly challenged the peace and stability of the Bangsamoro region. The pandemic strained efforts to reintegrate former combatants, driving up competition for scarce resources in localities with historical tension and shifting institutional focus away from building inclusive policies during the formative stage of the peace process. The UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) is the organization’s financial instrument of first resort to sustain peace in countries or situations at risk or affected by violent conflict. [Ends] For more information, contact: UN Philippines Resident Coordinator Office: Teresa L. Debuque, debuque@un.org IOM: Itayi Viriri, IOM Regional Spokesperson, iviriri@iom.int UNFPA: Rochelle Angela Yu, royu@unfpa.org UN Women: Ma. Rosalyn Mesina, rosalyn.mesina@unwomen.org BARMM: Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority, bpda@bangsamoro.gov.ph

United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in the Philippines Gustavo Gonzalez delivered the following message at the Stockholm+50 Culminating Event on 16 December 2022: H.E. Annika Gunilla Thunborg, Ambassador, Embassy of Sweden Atty. Jonas Leones, Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and International Affairs, DENR My colleagues from the UN Country Team Partners from government present here and those joining online Good morning to all of you. I am very pleased to join you in this culmination of the celebration of the 50 years since the UN Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972. We have certainly come a long way since the multilateral community, including the Philippines, first came together and put a spotlight on the environment as a shared global concern. More than celebrating successes, Stockholm+50 was an important opportunity to reflect on where we are now and where we may be headed if we don’t take corrective actions. The world is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. We face a triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Each year, the climate emergency is killing and displacing ever more people. Ecosystems degradation is escalating the loss of biodiversity and compromising the well-being not only of the people here now but also of our next generation. There is the ever-growing challenge of pollution and waste. Stockholm+50 was therefore a very timely event that brought the global community together to renew commitments, energize action, and find practical initiatives to change course. I understand that Stockholm+50 held last June 2022 identified new ideas, new models of engagement, and new approaches to environmental governance. I am pleased to note that the Philippines played a very active role in before, during, and after the event through the conduct of multiple stakeholder consultations supported by the United Nations to prepare inputs, and the participation of the Philippine delegation in shaping the Stockholm+50 agenda, and here now to take forward the country’s commitment and translate these into concrete action. An important recommendation for action from Stockholm+50 was a call to strengthen national implementation of existing commitments for a healthy planet. This can be achieved by: (1) enhancing environmental national legislation, budget, planning processes and institutional frameworks; (2) promoting evidence-based policymaking, including by enhanced collaboration between academic disciplines and thematic scientific panels, drawing on insights and expertise from indigenous and traditional knowledge; and (3) scaling-up capacity support and development, access to, and financing for environmentally sound technologies. To a certain extent, the UN system in the Philippines has already been assisting the government in these three areas through the implementation of the UN Socioeconomic and Peacebuilding Framework for COVID-19 Recovery in the Philippines 2020-2023. A few examples of our past work include: (1) supporting the preparation of policies and amended legislation for the conservation and sustainable use of agro-biodiversity in traditional agro-ecosystems; (2) assessing past adaptation activities to provide a guide for future short and long term adaptation measures for agriculture and fisheries; and (3) promoting the adoption of renewable energy in underserved remote communities. Looking ahead, the UN now has a great window of opportunity to come together and coordinate our support to assist the government move forward the Stockholm +50 agenda. We are currently in the middle of the process of developing a new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for 2024 to 2028. This new cooperation framework to be agreed with the government will serve as our shared blueprint for the UN’s support for the next five years that will be closely aligned with the new Philippine Development Plan for 2023 to 2028. I therefore urge you to participate and engage with the UN in this process so that we can ensure our support to the government on addressing the country’s significant environmental challenges are fully aligned with the Stockholm+50 agenda. I would like to end by reaffirming the UN’s strong commitment to the Philippines and working with all of you to protect our planet, to recover sustainably from the COVID-19 pandemic, and to ensure that the most vulnerable – such as the youth, women, and Indigenous Peoples – are part of our collective decision-making to achieve a healthy planet for the prosperity of all. [Ends]   Thank you.

United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez delivered the following message for the high-level forum on Gender-responsive and Sustainable Recruitment and Reintegration in Philippine Migration Governance, on 14 December 2022: Thank you for joining us in this High-level Forum on Gender-responsive and Sustainable Recruitment and Reintegration in Philippine Migration Governance. This is the culmination of a series of forums organized by the Bridging Recruitment to Reintegration in Migration Governance Programme, or BRIDGE, in partnership with UP-CIFAL Philippines to bring together the wealth of knowledge and experience of diverse migration actors on issues surrounding gender and labor migration in the Philippine context. The BRIDGE Programme is a joint programme implemented together by UN Women, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the International Labor Organization (ILO) with support from the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF), to help the Philippine public sector, civil society, and industry implement the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM). In particular, it aims to support the Philippines, a GCM champion country, in delivering in a gender-responsive manner on Objectives 6 and 21 of the Compact, on fair and ethical recruitment, decent work, dignified return, and sustainable reintegration. The Philippines is a global outlier in that it has more women than men working overseas. The 2021 Survey on Overseas Filipinos released earlier this month found that 60.2 percent of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were women, a further deepening of the trend that scholars have called the ‘feminization’ of Philippine labor migration. Whether we celebrate this trend or worry about it is a difficult question. On the one hand, human mobility for employment can be an empowering experience, and the fact that this option is available to women is worth celebrating. On the other hand, women migrant workers continue to be concentrated in precarious jobs, with the same survey showing that 64.8 percent of women OFWs were in elementary jobs, such as domestic work. Meanwhile, the global labor migration landscape is still reeling from the impact of COVID-19. More than a million OFWs have returned since the start of the pandemic. A survey by the Scalabrini Migration Center commissioned by IOM as part of BRIDGE estimates that around 59 percent of them intend to remigrate, and around 4 percent have already been able to do so. That means hundreds of thousands more are looking for ways to return abroad for work. These returnees as well as would be OFWs face a global labor migration landscape in flux amid digital transformation and the climate crisis.  Digital technologies are changing many industries, automating many jobs. The climate crisis and the need to decarbonize industries presents its own challenges in terms of ensuring a just transition, as many extractive and high-emissions industries employ migrant workers. Women stand to face heightened disadvantage as the jobs of the future will require significant IT and technical skills. Male OFWs are 10 times more likely than female OFWs to occupy technical jobs such as technicians, plant and machine operators and assemblers, according to the survey. This is why the BRIDGE Programme has incorporated digital skills training in its reintegration interventions, partnering with Connected Women to train more than 60 OFWs and OFW returnees in digital annotation. It also partnered with ATIKHA Overseas Workers and Communities Initiative to train 30 OFWs and OFW family members in Iloilo in agroforestry, recognizing the need for more regenerative economic models to address our environmental predicament. Today, we will hear how other migration agencies and actors are tackling the diverse challenges in the labor migration space. Importantly, we will also hear from an OFW returnee, who will share about her own reintegration project, which simultaneously addresses the issue of food security. I would like to thank Dr Edna Co and her team in UP-CIFAL Philippines for enabling this vital conversation to take place by organizing the dialogue in partnership with the BRIDGE Programme. In closing, I wish to greet our OFWs and other Filipino migrants an advance Happy International Migrants’ Day. We hope our collective efforts help you to navigate your migration journeys toward the “matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay” you, along with your fellow Filipinos, long for. Salamat at mabuhay! Watch the video message  

United Nations (UN) Philippines Resident Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez delivered the following message (as prepared) at the Multi-stakeholder Policy Forum on the UN Peacebuilding Fund Joint Programme: It is my great privilege to close this very important dialogue and session to determine the best practices from the critical contributions of this Peacebuilding Fund Joint Project over the past two years. The United Nations has provided targeted support to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the drive towards critical peace objectives during this momentous and delicate point in the history of the region. With the government managing the transition of the region, all whilst responding to COVID-19, it was critical that the international community and government authorities came together to support the vulnerable segments of society that were at risk of being left behind, particularly women, youth and non-Moro indigenous people. This Policy Forum was the culmination of the collective work of the vibrant Bangsamoro Civil Society, our dedicated UN implementing agencies, of our government representative and technical offices in the BARMM, and, of course, of our community partners. You have all been steadfastly driving the BARMM towards inclusion, moral governance and sustainable peace. For this I commend you all. However, we come together at a critical time for the BARMM. A time where we are working together to repair the damages that have befallen the region over many decades of struggle. Over the past two years, the region has continued to suffer both large and small-scale displacement as a result of conflict and climate change. In 2021, we saw tens of thousands of community members displaced by active conflict in Maguindanao. More recently, we saw these same communities affected and displaced by the severe flooding from TS Paeng. In Marawi City, we still have over 17,000 families in a state of displacement as a result of the Marawi Siege. The cycle of conflict and displacement is one where understanding the drivers and the possibilities for durable solutions is key to sustainable peace and development. This understanding starts with events like these where we can build on the best practices of our collective work and develop common objectives for the future. This project has made many fine achievements, with so much owed to all of your dedication and hard work. This Joint Programme was part of a broader support and commitment from the UN system towards conflict transformation and peacebuilding. IOM, UNFPA and UN Women have been jointly implementing the STEP-BARMM joint project - which has not only been supporting the implementation of the peace agreement but also on building resilience of communities and groups affected by decades of conflict. The STEP-BARMM project has supported 15 cooperatives from the Bangsamoro Islamic Women’s Auxiliary Brigade with sustainable livelihoods ranging from bakeries to scrap metal workshops. The project also supported the BIWAB women as they raised awareness on Gender-based Violence and even became Para-Social Workers under the Ministry of Social Services and Development. This project also worked hand-in-hand with the Bangsamoro Women’s Commission to operationalize and localize the Regional Action Plan on Women Peace and Security for LGUs, as well as with the Bangsamoro Youth Commision to develop a policy manual to shape future peacebuilding intiatives. Another lasting achievement of your work and advocacy is the establishment of the Peace, Security, and Reconciliation Office under the Office of the Chief Minister. This is a fantastic demonstration of a sustainable commitment to peace and development. Finally, but not least of all, the project has had committed community partners who have helped us strengthen community policing, responsive Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples community groups, and women conflict mediators in hotspots who were recently featured as examples of “superwomen peacebuilders” from the Philippines in international media covering the launch of the ASEAN Women, Peace and Security Regional Action Plan. Your continued work to mitigate conflict and protect our communities is an inspiration for all. Through the UN Peacebuilding Fund, the UN agencies have truly come together with government, civil society and communities to leverage our collective strength to support the Bangsamoro in the pursuit of peace as demonstrated by these achievements. While these results are uplifting, it is critical that we continue to work together towards peace and development. We need to intensify our efforts towards inclusion ahead of the 2025 exit agreement and the BARMM’s parliamentary elections. Thank you very much for all your hard work and commitments to peace. I continue to be your biggest advocate and supporter.