Courageous leadership and the ability to connect peacebuilding to socio-economic development are among the merits that make the municipality of Kauswagan in the Philippines the winner of the first UCLG City of Bogotá Peace Prize! The award ceremony took place as part of the UCLG General Assembly on 14 October in Bogotá. Mayor Ton Rombouts, Vice-Chair of the UCLG Committee on Development Cooperation and City Diplomacy, chaired the peace prize session at the congress and presented the winner, who received the award from Enrique Peñalosa, Mayor of Bogotá.
Kauswagan is a municipality in the Lanao del Norte province of the Philippines, which since the 1970s has been the stage of the Moro conflict between an Islamic secessionist insurgency and the Philippine Army. In 2010, the Kauswagan local government started a project to fight the root causes of the conflict, which were poverty, food insecurity and inequalities between population groups, notably Muslims and Christians. Called ‘From Arms to Farms: Walking through the Paths of Peace’, the project proved very successful in addressing these issues.
All finalists presented their initiatives at a special session on 13 October as part of the UCLG Congress. The finalists comprised a diverse range of innovative peace projects by local governments. The jury particularly commended the municipality of Kauswagan for moving beyond addressing the symptoms of violent conflict towards a socio-economic approach that bridges peace and development. As a recognition for their inspiring work, the municipality of Kauswagan receives an award of €20.000, aimed at strengthening their initiative. Furthermore, the municipality is invited to present the project in the Netherlands in 2017.
This first edition of the UCLG Peace Prize has been organised by VNG International , the Provincial Council of Barcelona, the Dutch Peace NGO PAX, and the City of Bogotá. The prize is also supported financially by the Dutch fund ‘vfonds’. More information about the prize and the jury verdict can be found on peaceprize.uclg.org.