Promoting Peace as the Antidote to Violent Extremism: Evaluation of a Philippines-Based Tech Camp and Peace Promotion Fellowship
This RAND report evaluates Equal Access International's countering violent extremism work on Mindanao, where militant violence persists across the southern Philippines and neighboring Sulu archipelago. EAI ran two five-day tech camps to train local civil society members in designing CVE campaigns, then selected 11 activists for a six-month Peace Promotion Fellowship that provided mentorship and funding to implement their own community-based micro-campaigns. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the fellows and EAI staff, the authors find that participants were highly satisfied with the tech camps, came away with stronger social media and public speaking skills, and went on to build a mix of Facebook-driven and face-to-face projects focused on community conflict education and local peace promotion. The recommendations cluster around tighter program design—lighter daily content with more practical breakouts, stronger project management training, earlier introduction of the PPF concept, more dedicated coaching staff for fellows working in hard-to-reach areas, contingency planning for disruptions, attention to fellow credibility in selection, and more rigorous evaluation built into future iterations.