Cotabato City - In preparation for the Mindanao State University’s (MSU) transition into a National Peace University, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Philippines and the MSU’s Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao (IPDM) conducted a 3-day Training Workshop on Effective Integration of Peace in MSU-Maguindanao to strengthen the goal of MSU to institutionalize peace education in the curriculum, specifically in the crafting of course modules, course syllabi, classroom activities, and assessment mechanisms.

Established in 1961 through Republic Act 1387, the Mindanao State University (MSU) was mandated by the government to advance the cause of national unity and actively pursue integration through education. The MSU System has an urgent peace building mandate, with most of its campuses located in conflict- affected areas in Mindanao not only to provide educational learning and employment opportunities to young people, but also to create and extend initiatives that will pave the way for a peaceful Mindanao.

This mandate is strengthened through the new charter passed in the Congress which proposes for MSU to be the National Peace University. MSU-Maguindanao sincerely commits itself to the aforementioned aim of the system; hence, it has already started to intensify its peace initiatives through the Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao, the University’s peace arm.

The joint initiative was forged through the leadership MSU-Maguindanao Chancellor Bai Hejira Nefertiti M. Limbona, PhD. and Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao Director Grant Warren D. Lu in collaboration with the UNDP Philippines.

Among the participants were college deans, the directors of Graduate School and ILSHS - Junior and Senior High School, heads of semi-academic offices, program advisers, and other faculty members.

### ###