Associate Professor at the School of Business and Social Science (SBSS), Al Bukhary International University (AIU)

Dr. Ayesah Uy Abubakar is an Associate Professor at the School of Business and Social Science (SBSS) at Al Bukhary International University (AIU). Dr. Ayesah is the Head of Programme of the Bachelors in Social Development Programme at SBSS-AIU. She teaches courses in the fields of development, human rights and IHL, peace and conflict studies among many others. In 2019, she published a book on Peacebuilding and Sustainable Human Development: The Pursuit of the Bangsamoro Right to Self Determination (Springer and UMS Press) and co-authored a chapter on “Mindanao” in a book called, Comparing Peace Process, edited by McGinty & Ozerdem (Routledge). Dr. Ayesah is a recipient of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Presidential Award for her work on peacebuilding in Southeast Asia in 2014. She is among the three architects of a track 1.5 peacebuilding program called Consolidation for Peace for Southern Thailand, Aceh and Mindanao. The COP is a program by the Research & Education for Peace, Universiti Sains Malaysia (REPUSM), Southeast Asian Conflict Studies Network (SEACSN) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) during the period of 2006-2014. Since 2018, Dr. Ayesah represents Malaysia at the ASEAN Women Peace Registry (AWPR) – a pool of practitioners in conflict resolution and peacebuilding organised by the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR).

In terms of research, apart from conflict and peace studies related research, Dr. Ayesah has conducted research on child rights, unaccompanied and separated children and undocumented persons in Malaysia. She is also an active member of the Southeast Asia Conflict Studies Network (SEACSN) in which she participates in human rights and peace related education and advocacy programmes.

Dr. Ayesah completed her PhD in Social Sciences (Development Studies) at Universiti Sains Malaysia (2013). She obtained a Master in Development Management at the Asian Institute of Management (2002) and a Certificate in Inter-cultural Management-American Focused Management from the Japan America Institute of Management Science (1999). She received her Bachelor of Arts in Film and Audio-Visual Communication from the College of Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines in Diliman (1995).

Currently, Dr. Ayesah is a member of – among others – Southeast Asian Human Rights Network (SEAHRN) and as Gender Focal Person for Global Partnership for the Prevention ofArmed Conflict (GPPAC) Southeast Asia. She is also a co-host in the Podcast, She TalksPeace.

Expertise:
Education and Research; Capacity Building; Networking and Liaison.

Coordinator for Community
Mediation Programme Department of Unity and National Integration

Co-founder and Director
Payong Organization

She was born in 1960 in Yangon. She was graduated from Institute of Economics, Yangon in 1978-79 and attained Master of Economics (M.Econ) in 1985 from the same institute.

She Joined Planning Department under the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development (Ministry of Planning and Finance at that time) as a Deputy Planning Officer since 1985 and moved to Foreign Economic Relations Department under the same Ministry as a staff officer in1990. In 1999, She had been transferred to Planning Department as an Assistant Director.

When she was in the position of Director, she had been chosen Lee Kuan Yew scholarship and obtained Master in Public Management from National University of Singapore. She became Director General for planning
department in 2008. She had been appointed as a Deputy Minister for Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development since August, 2013 and finished her term in the end of March 2016.

She joined Asian Development Bank project namely Equipping Youth for Employment as a Deputy Team Leader / Specialists on Secondary Education Curriculum Development (Economics) from December 2018 to
August 2021.

At present, she is serving as a Member of the Executive Board of the Myanmar Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

Vice President (2) – Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee ? State (Mon)

Expertise: Ceasefire monitoring, Mediation

Director-General of the Department of Social Welfare

Expertise:
Policy Making; Capacity Building; Healing and Reconciliation; Community Social cohesion; Program Monitoring and Evaluation; Resource / Fund Mobilization; Networking and Liaison

Former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process

Expertise:
Mediation; Policy Making; Capacity Building; Community Social cohesion; Program Monitoring and Evaluation; Resource / Fund Mobilization; Networking and Liaison

Expertise:
Mediation; Education and Research; Policy Making; Capacity Building; Disarmament, Demobilization of combatants; Reintegration of combatants; Program Monitoring and Evaluation; Resource / Fund Mobilization; Networking and Liaison

Amina Rasul-Bernardo is the President of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy. She is a member of the Board of Regents of Mindanao State University. One of the leading Muslim leaders in the Philippines working to strengthen peace and development as well as promote human rights, justice and democratic practices in Muslim Mindanao, she has spearheaded the organizing and capacity-building of Muslim women, particularly those who teach in the madrasah, for peace-building and prevention of violent extremism. Her efforts led to the establishment of the Noorus Salam (Light of Peace), an organization of Muslim women active in Mindanao and Muslim communities in Metro Manila. She has developed an Islamic peace education program in cooperation with Muslim religious leaders.

She has been a Trustee and Vice-Chair of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation.

She has written & edited several books on the Mindanao conflict, Islam, and democracy such as Broken Peace? Assessing the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement and The Radicalization of Muslim Communities in Southeast Asia.

She was a member of the Philippine cabinet under former president Fidel V. Ramos, serving as Presidential Advisor on Youth Affairs and appointed concurrently as the first chair of the National Youth Commission (NYC), which she organized. In addition, she has served as Commissioner of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, representing Muslims; as a board member of the Philippine National Oil Corporation (PNOC) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP); and as founding director of the Local Government Guarantee Corporation (LGGC). She was a member of the Board of the Mindanao Development Authority.

She was a UN PEACE awardee for 2019. In 2007, she received the Muslim Democrat of the Year Award from the Washington, DC-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) and is recognized as one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims by the Royal Aal al-Bayt Foundation of Jordan.

She holds a bachelors degree in economics from the University of the Philippines, an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, and a masters in public administration from Harvards Kennedy School of Government.

Lead Researcher (Socio-Cultural)
ASEAN Studies Center, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

Expertise:
Education and Research; Policy Making (Research outputs helped to inform or influence policy, but did not have a direct or immediate input to policy making per se); Capacity Building; Program Monitoring and Evaluation; Resource / Fund Mobilization (Not directly relevant but research outputs can become advisory inputs to potential or interested donors); Networking and Liaison; Human security norms discussion/ identification