One and a half billion people live in fragile, conflict-affected areas. As food and nutrition insecurity become increasingly concentrated in such areas, Kauswagan is a unique example that shows how is possible to solve an on-going conflict by tackling underlying socioeconomic and political issues. The decades-long war between the forces of the government and groups like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) left a huge part of Mindanao in poverty.

Other municipalities and regions in the Philippines are now very interested in Kauswagan’s approach and they visit the municipality to study how it managed to break the links between food insecurity and conflict and build a resilient economy, based on agroecological practices and organic farming.

The From Arms to Farms programme received a number of awards, including an international recognition in 2016, when it won the first edition of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Peace Prize. On that occasion, regional authorities from Guatemala, Colombia and Brazil all expressed interest in replicating Kauswagan’s experience.