InAsia

A Data-Driven Peace Dividend for the Bangsamoro

May 26, 2021 The Asia Foundation
InAsia
A Data-Driven Peace Dividend for the Bangsamoro
Show Notes Transcript

It’s been four years since the terrorist siege of Marawi. It’s been just two years since the president’s pen ratified the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Now, some young data enthusiasts have offered a tantalizing glimpse of a brighter future in the southern Philippines. 

Joselle Janolo (00:03):

The contestants were really cool. They were so talented, you could feel the passion and you could really feel that they really wanted to help.

John Rieger (00:12):

Some young data enthusiasts offer a tantalizing glimpse of a brighter future for the Bangsamoro in Southern Philippines. This week on InAsia, from The Asia Foundation. I'm John Rieger.

Tracie Yang (00:22):

And I'm Tracie Yang. It's been four years since the terrorist's siege destroyed the Philippines city of Marawi. It's been just two years since the president's pen ratified the creation of the BARMM, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. But after 40 years of conflict, the BARMM desperately needs new ideas to jumpstart development.

John Rieger (00:43):

So, what might this have to do with a data science competition? Joining us now are Addie Unsi, a civil society specialist and Joselle Janolo, an assistant program officer for The Asia Foundation in the Philippines. They're here to talk to us about the BARMM Data Challenge. Addie and Joselle, Thanks for joining us. Where are you right now?

Addie Unsi (01:01):

Hi, Thanks John and Tracie. I am currently in Mindanao.

John Rieger (01:02):

And what about you, Joselle?

Joselle Janolo (01:02):

Hey, John and Tracie. So I'm in Bacoor City, Cavite.

John Rieger (01:11):

Well, Thank you. We're so glad back to have both of you with us today.

Tracie Yang (01:14):

Definitely. So, let's talk about the BARMM Data Challenge. What is it? And more importantly, why is it? Why this initiative in Mindanao?

Addie Unsi (01:25):

BARMM is a new entity, new government. We just transition from conflict to peace and development. And we are really experiencing difficulties in terms of high poverty rate, under development, people are longing for peace dividends. So we need a fast track development approach so we can maintain stability.

Joselle Janolo (01:50):

The Data challenge in BARMM was invitation to all Filipino data science enthusiasts to produce solutions using publicly available data in helping to solve development challenges in BARMM, and you know select any of the four priority areas identified. This includes community level response to the health crisis specifically COVID-19, access to quality and inclusive education, bridging economic opportunities to committees and models for moral governance.

John Rieger (02:22):

So, the BARMM data challenge was actually a contest. Is that right?

Joselle Janolo (02:25):

Yeah.

John Rieger (02:26):

Who shows up for an event like this? Who were the participants?

Joselle Janolo (02:28):

Yeah. For this data challenge we actually invited, you know all the Filipino data science enthusiasts. Anyone ages 15 years old and above within or outside BARMM were welcome to join. No technical or data experience was required.

Tracie Yang (02:44):

Why Don't you tell us a bit more about how the competition was run? What was the process?

Joselle Janolo (02:51):

So teams and individuals are asked to submit a brief abstract of their decide project, focusing on development challenges in BARMM. Finalists were chosen from this pool to progress to the next round and they were then invited to a final pitch round to compete for the special awards. So the judges looked into their use of the Bangsamoro data, their use of data science, its practicality, and the relevance of the solutions.

John Rieger (03:21):

There were eight winners. Is that right?

Joselle Janolo (03:22):

Yeah.

John Rieger (03:23):

Let's talk about some of the winners. Everybody submitted a three-minute video, basically this is their elevator pitch. And even though our podcast has no pictures, we can hear a little bit of some of the winning entries.

John Rieger (03:37):

So here's the first one. This one was called E-Padian. [ [inaudible 00:03:42]

John Rieger (03:42):

[crosstalk 00:03:42] Now this one starts out pretty dramatic.

Speaker 5 (03:44):

May 23, 2017 mark the date of the longest urban battle in the Philippines.

John Rieger (03:50):

What's what's going on with this one? [crosstalk 00:03:52]

Joselle Janolo (03:52):

So E-Padian is the winner of the BARMM special award. It's an online shop that would give local entrepreneurs a platform to sell goods and services through an e-commerce site in a mobile app. This resembles the Padian, a busy old commercial area in Marawi which was greatly affected by the siege. [inaudible 00:04:15]

Joselle Janolo (04:15):

Which you hear right now.

John Rieger (04:17):

The Pictures from Marawi are shocking. They really show the city totally destroyed and included in that was the old market district of Padian, right? Which was apparently a bustling marketplace and really part of the heart of the commercial and social life of the city, and that was completely destroyed. So this entry in the competition was an attempt to supercharge the recovery from that. We don't have to rebuild the physical marketplace, we can build a virtual marketplace

Addie Unsi (04:48):

Exactly John, and because of the context of COVID in addition to that situation. The promotion of e-commerce in general is really a help for the people to avoid crowding in an old market to avoid people piling up. So here the platform for the people to start the life again.

Speaker 6 (05:10):

Hello. Good day, I'm [inaudible 00:05:12] and welcome to BARMM agriculture monitoring dashboard.

Tracie Yang (05:16):

[crosstalk 00:05:16] Okay. This entry comes from a group calling themselves team Agri BARMM. Great name.

John Rieger (05:22):

I like that.

Tracie Yang (05:22):

What's this one about?

Joselle Janolo (05:24):

So, the team Agri BARMM is the winner of the most relevant awards. The agricultural monitoring dashboard would allow local government units and communities to get insights into how their production has developed, you know see the trends and patterns. It features data sources related to crop, livestock, poultry and fisheries from the Philippine statistics authority, and also features environmental hazards in BARMM Fault lines, flood areas, landslides and storm search. So this dashboard would help disseminate information and identify areas where they can improve through the data driven decision making.

John Rieger (06:04):

How much of a need was there for this specific kind of issue information?

Tracie Yang (06:08):

Yeah.

Joselle Janolo (06:08):

It really features a lot of you know useful information including volume of production per year, volume of production by crop, area harvested. And it's going to be really useful for BARMM as they you know recover economically to improve the agricultural sector.

Tracie Yang (06:28):

Okay. Here's another one. This is another one. This one with a great name, it's called check me app or check me up. This is a medical app. Let's just hear a beginning of the video.

Speaker 7 (06:43):

Assalamualaikum. I'm Jenari Jomel and I'm representing the team [inaudible 00:06:45] squad. We are from Mindanao state university. Our project is titled check me app, it is a medical consultation app.

Addie Unsi (06:50):

Check Me app is one of my favorite entries. Check me app is a mobile app that has the feature of connecting people to a doctor. We don't have much doctor, but basically this is just like a telemedicine. [crosstalk 00:07:03]

John Rieger (07:03):

All the presenters sound very eager and very enthusiastic and pretty young. Is that right?

Addie Unsi (07:09):

Yes John, exactly. These are young people.

Joselle Janolo (07:12):

The contestants were really cool because they were so talented and you could feel the passion, you could really feel from the videos that they really wanted to help.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Asnin Pendatun (07:25):

The participants are very young, very passionate and idealistic.

John Rieger (07:28):

We welcome now to the podcast, cabinet secretary Mohammad Asnin Pendatun. He's himself, one of a new generation of young leaders in the BARMM and he was closely involved with the BARMM data challenge. It must make you feel very hopeful?

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Asnin Pendatun (07:40):

Yeah, It does. Surprisingly many of the senior officials actually find it really really interesting.

Tracie Yang (07:47):

So then how does this initiative fit into the much bigger project of building peace and prosperity in the BARMM?

Speaker 9 (07:56):

We often say that Mindanao is the land of promise but that promise has been unfulfilled for several decades. We know that data would actually help solve a lot of our development problems or at the very least could give us empirical insight. The long term goal release to help develop local data science practitioners. Our idea is how we can make it part of the everyday activity, everyday decision-making in the region.

John Rieger (08:25):

Not much more than two years ago the BARMM didn't yet exist. Now you have these 21st century initiatives on the table. This must be a very exciting moment in a very exciting time.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Asnin Pendatun (08:37):

It's very exciting and at the same time challenging, I guess.

Tracie Yang (08:40):

Mm-hmm (affirmative). [crosstalk 00:08:42]

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Asnin Pendatun (08:41):

Exciting in the sense that we see the prospect of it, we felt the benefits of it, but challenging in a sense that we need to do a lot more to have this culture of data driven policies.

John Rieger (08:54):

I suppose the best way to wrap this up would be by saying congratulations on the bright future that the BARMM seems to have ahead of it.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Asnin Pendatun (09:02):

Thank you. Thank you for the congratulations. But prayers and best wishes are also welcome.

Tracie Yang (09:08):

Of course, of course.

John Rieger (09:10):

And that's our show. Our thanks to cabinet secretary Pendatun and to The Asia foundation's Joselle Janolo and Addie Unsi for joining us today.

Tracie Yang (09:18):

Addie and Joselle have written about the BARMM data challenge in this week's in Asia blog. And while you're there, why not subscribe to our podcast. It's nutritious and delicious until next time. I'm Tracie Yang.

John Rieger (09:31):

And I'm John Rieger.

Tracie Yang (09:32):

Thanks for listening.