Whenever I visit a community — a remote sitio in Basilan, a coastal village in Sulu, or a former conflict area in Maguindanao — I am reminded that peace must be built not only with respect, empathy and understanding, but with experience and knowledge.

This was the heart of the 5th Peace Research Conference held last week. As I listened to the participants speak — scholars, community leaders, government partners, and young researchers, I realized how far we’ve come and also how much work remains.

When we at the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) launched this conference way back in 2021, our vision was simple but ambitious: to make research the backbone of our peacebuilding initiatives.

We wanted to ensure that every policy that we crafted, program that we implemented, and community dialogue that we conducted was guided by evidence and data. Like a navigator, we wanted to know the terrain, geography and the people we had to deal with.

Four years later, this annual gathering has grown into one of the country’s most credible platforms for evidence-based peacebuilding. It has become a venue where academic rigor meets lived experiences and where policy proposals become courses of action.

As a former soldier and now, as a peacebuilder, I have seen what happens when decisions are made without understanding the realities on the ground. The implementation of agreements hit a roadblock, programs become ineffective, and communities are left behind.

That is why in this year’s conference, I emphasized that our work cannot be anchored solely on a vision or good intention. We need accurate data and testimonials analyzed and transformed into knowledge and insights, which we can only get through extensive research and consultations with our beneficiaries and stakeholders.

The research conference featured 15 research studies that focused on the different dimensions of peace: reintegration of former combatants, rebuilding of communities, challenges of local governance, link between climate and conflict and inclusion of marginalized sectors.

These studies are not only technical papers but real-world recommendations on how we build on and sustain the gains of peace. Every chart, every statistic, every narrative informs us on how we can make our peacebuilding work more effective, efficient and responsive to the realities on the ground.

In my remarks during the conference, I underscored that research is only valuable if it leads to concrete action. I have seen far too many studies end up as mere documents displayed on shelves, gathering dust and eventually forgotten.

Therefore, the knowledge shared in this conference must be translated into new policy directives, enhanced programs, local peace mechanisms, or even legislative reforms. Research must play an integral role in shaping our nation’s peace agenda. I firmly believe that research is our future. As a former member of the armed forces, I have understood the power of research when my commandant assigned me to do combat research—instilling in me that the future belongs to those who have the ability to gather data, distill insights and from there, generate actions and solutions.

This is why we established the Philippine Peace Institute (PPI). The PPI is part of our long-term vision to create a strong, dynamic institution that brings government, academe, civil society, and communities together to conduct meaningful peace research.

The PPI is not just an institution under OPAPRU. It is a realization of the national government’s commitment to ensuring that knowledge will guide our agency’s peacebuilding efforts in the coming years.

Among the key topics discussed during this year’s conference was the critical link between climate, livelihood, and conflict, and how they affect one another and impact on the lives of our people, especially those in conflict-affected areas.

As someone who has seen how environmental issues can trigger tensions, I was thrilled with the partnership the OPAPRU forged with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) during the conference.

We expect this collaboration to yield positive results once it gets off the ground. By integrating environmental research into peacebuilding, we are acknowledging that peacebuilding, livelihood creation and climate resilience must go hand in hand. This area of peacebuilding has been an unchartered territory by OPAPRU. This collaboration offers the first steps toward exploring the nexus between climate and conflict, and assisting the government with climate-sensitive approaches that merge and integrate with conflict-sensitive, gender-responsive and inclusive approaches that OPAPRU has already been employing in its programs and interventions.

In his keynote address, OPAPRU Senior Undersecretary Isidro Purisima captured the spirit of the conference by saying that research must be a spark that will bring positive change. I could not agree more.

This is because fostering peace is not the work of the government alone. We need all sectors — women, youth, academe, civil society, and the religious community — to be part of this collective effort.

This is why inclusivity remains a main pillar of our work. Women have always been active agents of peace, leadership, and social transformation. Their voices must not only be heard but acknowledged and acted upon.

As the conference closed, a consensus was made among the delegates: that evidenced-based research must not only be utilized but maximized to its full potential to build a more compassionate, harmonious and peaceful society.

That, for me, is the true impact of this year’s Peace Research Conference. It reminds us that peacebuilding is a long, complex and difficult process. But with research lighting our path, genuine and long-lasting peace will one day be our lived reality.

(Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., is the presidential adviser on peace, reconciliation and unity.)