Tagpuan Ateneo delivers strategic early childcare governance recommendation to the Second Congressional Commission on Education

The Tagpuan Ateneo Center for Dialogue, Research, and Collaboration delivered before the Second Congressional Commission on Education of the Philippine Congress (EDCOM 2) a strategic governance policy reform paper addressing the deepening crisis of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). 

Tagpuan Ateneo drew its paper from an integrative qualitative and quantitative ECCD governance reform study utilizing a dialogue-oriented and collaborative approach to policy formulation. Tagpuan Ateneo conducted the study in partnership with Ministry of Social Services and Development of the BARMM government, The Asia Foundation (TAF), and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Australian government.

The resulting Tagpuan Ateneo policy paper, titled “Covering the Last Mile: Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Governance and Delivery in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” was presented before the EDCOM 2 public hearing at the Bonifacio Global City campus of the University of the Philippines last 9 October 2025. 

In the study, Tagpuan Ateneo underscored four key issues driving the crisis in childcare and development of Bangsamoro children within the ages of zero to ten years old as follows:

• The lingering impact of the long-running armed conflict on children malnutrition, education, and welfare
• Continuing episodes of civilian displacement driven by frequent community-level armed conflicts and the complicating factor of climate change-induced flooding and drought
• Fragmented, uneven, and underinvestment on childcare
• Disjunctions in early childcare, education, and social services delivery among BARMM, the national government, and local government duty bearers 

These issues, the Tagpuan study pointed, resulted to a persisting trend wherein “ECCD programs remain inaccessible to thousands of children due to geography, conflict, and workforce shortages” in the Bangsamoro region.

To address the BARMM ECCD crisis, Tagpuan Ateneo recommended a comprehensive coordinative, integrative, and collaborative approach to governance reforms outlined as follows:

• Strategic ECCD governance restructuring through a phased local government unit devolution of services for young children
• Reconstituting national and regional government ECCD collaboration within the purview, spirit, and mechanisms of Bangsamoro autonomous governance
• Creating a-whole-of-government ECCD ecosystem led by the BARMM government social development sectors
• Establishing a multi-sector collaborative framework and operationalization of ECCD program planning, tracking, and assessment

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The Tagpuan Ateneo study was conducted by an interdisciplinary and inter-university team of researchers from Ateneo de Manila University (Ateneo) and the Mindanao State University - Tawi tawi (MSU Tawi-tawi). The study team tapped into an innovative four-tier diplomacy-guided and dialogue-based research methodology of multi-sector roundtable discussion, reflexive key interviews, government panel-data analysis, and a series of grassroots community conversations. 

Dr Jose Jowel Canuday (Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ateneo) led the study with co-investigators comprising of Dr Kartini R Tahir (Islamic Education Psychology and Childhood Development, MSU Tawi-Tawi), Dr Melissa Quetolio-Navarra (Sociology and Governance, ADMU), Mr Joselito T Sescon (Economics, Ateneo), Ms Roselle Trishia Reyes-Carbaja (Social Development, Ateneo), and Ms Luisa Cecilia G dela Cruz (Medical Anthropology and Sociology, Ateneo).

Tagpuan Ateneo is a scholarly, training, and practice center for dialogues and collaborations of Ateneo. As a center, Tagpuan fosters a culture of dialogue in action through finding common ground and building common good utilizing the tools of trans-disciplinary research, teaching, person formation, and societal engagement. 

The Asia Foundation is an international nonprofit organization with more than 70 years of experience working to improve lives and expand opportunities across Asia and the Pacific. Informed by more than 70 years of experience and deep local knowledge, TAF work with partners across more than 20 countries through 17 offices to improve lives and expand opportunities.

Read the full Tagpuan Ateneo BARMM ECCD study report here.

Photo c/o MindaNews