Conflict Mediation and Traditional Authority in the Province of Lanao del Sur, Mindanao

Abstract

This paper elaborates on the concept of hybridity as deployed by The Asia Foundation (TAF)in their conflict management interventions in the province of Lanao del Sur, the Philippines. The analysis starts from a critical reading of one specific Theory of Change (ToC) formulated by The Asia Foundation under the UK Department for International Development Programme Partnership Arrangements (DfID PPA) Component 5 entitled: ‘Community-level efforts to improve local security in Mindanao’. Two broad research questions have been derived from this ToC. First, an empirical analysis of the ‘weak state and strong traditional authority’ hypothesis that underpins the formulation of this ToC and the TAF conflict management strategy. Second, the question of whether the institutions through which TAF is working can be understood as hybrid institutions, in the sense that they reflect an interaction of the formal and the informal. The Conclusion relates these major empirical findings to the broader Hybrid Political Order literature