Paper short abstract:

The advocacy of human security by the Japanese government is reflected in the policy and practice of its ODA. Japan's peacebuilding in Mindanao is a showcase of her new practice. This paper clarifies how human security addressed Philippine sovereignty and the stalemate of the GPH-MILF peace process.

Paper long abstract:

Since the late 1990s Japan has been a leader in advocating and promoting human security as a key component of its ODA. Japan's "3P" strategies, namely propaganda, policy and practice were implemented to concretize human security as a norm of interational society. While propaganda activities were concentrated in the UN arena, Japan further strengthened her international cooperation by placing human security at the center of her ODA policy and practice. The concept of human security has significantly influenced, among other issues, Japan's peacebuilding assistance sine 2003. Japan's assistance in Mindanao has been its largest peacebuilding operation by far in terms of budget and aid modalities. This paper thus examines the case of Mindanao to see how Japan attempted to bring human security to local communities with bottom-up as well as top-down approaches. This paper focuses on three major challenges for external assistance to advocate human security in the conflict-affected Mindanao. First the paper clarifies how conflict of interest with Philippine sovereignty was handled with minimal confrontation. Second is the comprehensiveness of assistance, for which the paper discloses how Japan carried out locally aligned development projects in concert with the pace of the peace process between the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The third challenge was how to sustain assistance during the stalemate in the peace negotiation. Local empowerment was an important tool in such difficult situations. The case of Mindanao offers a model of future assistance of Japan under the current Development Cooperation Charter.