Methodology: Key Informant Interviews




Top Right: Dasuy of Peace Network Mindanao, Extreme Right: Sister Gladys
    Genos of the UNDD Peace Center, Bottom Right: Mader Lily Modes of Mindanao Peace and Development Corps (PDC)

Sarangani, Philippines - Swathed in bad publicity, this sleepy southern Philippine province has been plagued by erratic violence between government troops and muslim separatists for decades. Development has been slow on all accounts, from infrastructure projects to establishing social cohesion and unity. The province has been the focus of various aid-giving agencies both nationally and abroad among them include USAID and the biggest and most known  organisation to invest so far, UNDP. The current dynamics between these agencies and their stakeholders has been described as a “hit and miss” referring to the scenarios when programs are either holistically integrated into its target communities or outrightly discarded. A lot can be gleaned from the experiences of the groups, both grassroots and international. A gold mine for applied anthropologists and psychologists studying the dynamics between organisers and stakeholders. 

     The respondents for the KII was divided between project implementers and beneficiaries. Starting off with five standard questions the interview first examines the nature of the organisation until it zones in on a specific development program it has been conducting or has implemented. The major part of the interview was spent on dissecting the methods used to engage all project stakeholders, from pre-program activities to post-program visits. The table below details the short description of the organisation, background of the interviewee and a summary of their engagement practices: 
Program Implementers

Organisation 
Interviewee/Contact Person 
Key Learnings 
Museo de Oro, 
Xavier University
Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
Dr. Erlinda Burton, Curator 
  1. Projects should be started with the question: “What is the problem?” 
  2. Impact assessments need not necessarily be quantitative, most of the time intuition is a better measure of how the program is affecting the beneficiaries. 
  3. The implementers role should always be facilitative. There is no such thing as an obvious learning 
Peace Network Mindanao 
General Santos City, 
Philippines 
Dasuy, Project Manager 
  1. Values integration is key. A program, beyond being owned, should be able to inculcate or make manifest key values. These values are the cornerstones of programs, without them set nothing can be built/established.

PDA 
General Santos City 
Philippines 
Mader Lily Modes, 
Project Head 
  1. Participatory approaches is a reflection of the iterative nature of inculcating ownership. Procedures should be done several times, cyclic and never-ending before results can be observed. 
University of Notre Dame-Dadiangas Peace Center 
General Santos City, 
Philippines 
Sister Gladys Genoria, Director 
  1. The formulation and integration of a “peace and development” curriculum into the basic, core modules for student learning has been a key feature of the Peace Center at UNDD. 
  2. The development of lobbied advocacies into implemented policies is a testament to the efficiency of the bottom-up approach. 
  3. Engagement was established through a formally introduced method. The curriculum inclusion is complemented by a student organisation that runs in conjunction with the Peace Center. 
Kalinaw sa Mindanao-Sarangani Province 
Sarangani Provincial Capitol, 
Sarangani Province, 
Philippines 
Jocelyn Lambac-Kanda, Program Head 
  1. Programs before being owned by the communities/beneficiaries should be “owned” by the implementers first. They must believe in what they do and be able to gauge the significance of the programs they implement as well as their roles in it. 
  2. Most development projects are aimed at integrating certain sets of values, like seeds being planted. 
Program Beneficiaries 

Organisation/Project Beneficiary
Interviewee/Contact Person 
Key Learnings 
Lamlifew Village Womens Organisation 
Lamlifew, Sarangani Province 
Philippines 
Helen Lumbos, 
Director 
  1. Cooperation, even participation is ensured when the areas for improvement/grounds for aid are recognised by the beneficiaries themselves. To a certain extent, this recognition sets in place a more receptive view/attitude towards development. One that freely accepts without compromising discernment. 
  2. A need for identity brings people together 



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