This online forum was co-hosted between the Southeast Asia Forum and the U.S. Philippines Society on March 15th, 2023 to provide an update on key developments in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Governance and development specialists will share insights into the challenges and prospects for peace-building initiatives, community health issues, and effective regional governance and security during the interim period leading to BARMM Parliamentary elections in May 2025.
Featured Speakers
Earl Gast, President of the University Research Co., LLC (URC)
With 30 years of experience in government and private industry, Earl Gast is president of the University Research Co., LLC (URC), a US global development company dedicated to improving the quality of health care, social services, and health education worldwide. URC’s work in the Philippines began in 2007 with the USAID Health Promotion project supporting the Department of Health and local government units to promote and sustain health-seeking behavior related to maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition.
Brian Harding, Senior Expert for Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands at the U.S. Institute of Peace
Prior to joining USIP, he was deputy director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies where he managed projects focused on the region’s political economy and US-Southeast Asia relations. Harding also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon where he played an instrumental role in drafting high-profile defense policy initiatives.
Aurece Aubrey Bahala, peace and development practitioner affiliated with the Institute of Autonomy and Governance (IAG), a policy, research, and training center in Bangsamoro
As training expert at IAG, she handled multi-year capacity-building program that focused on political party-building and development in Bangsamoro, civil society empowerment, and institutional strengthening of the newly established Bangsamoro Human Rights Commission, She is currently an international fellow of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship at the University of Minnesota.
Moderator
William Wise, Chair of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Forum
Professor Wise’s government experience spanned more than three decades. He was Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice-President; Chief of Policy at the U.S. Pacific Command (now U.S. Indo-Pacific Command); and Deputy Director, for Policy Planning, East Asia & Pacific Region, Office of the Secretary of Defense. Earlier, he served in various positions in the U.S. Intelligence Community in Washington and overseas. He retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Colonel in 1997. Currently, Professor Wise is Chair of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Forum.
