'International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications (IJSRP)'
Abstract
This paper elaborates on the concept of hybridity as deployed by The Asia Foundation (TAF)in their conflict management interventions in the province of Lanao del Sur, the Philippines. This analysis starts from a critical reading of one specific Theory of Change (ToC) that has been formulated by The Asia Foundation under the UK Department for Interna
tional Development Programme Partnership Arrangements (DfID PPA) Component 5 and is entitled: ‘Community-level efforts to improve local security in Mindanao’. Two broad research questions have been derived from this ToC. First, an empirical analysis of the ‘weak state and strong traditional authority’ hypothesis that underpins the formulation of this ToC and conflict management strategy. Second, the question of whether the institutions through which TAF is working can be understood as hybrid institutions, in the sense that they reflect an interaction of the formal and the informal. The paper is then concluded by relating these major empirical findings to the broader Hybrid Political Order (HPO) literature. The main arguments from this paper can be divided into two major parts. A first, empirical part and a second part which deals more explicitly with the ToC and the place of hybridity therein