Luz Divina Canave-Anung

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Starting Point

Ms. Luz Divina Canave-Anung is the Executive Director of the Tambayan Centre for Children’s Rights, a non-governmental organisation aiding children with special protection needs, including street girls, abuse victims, human trafficking survivors, and marginalised youth from urban coastal areas.

She oversees initiatives at the Tambayan Centre, organising children's and youth groups, while mobilising Village Councils to combat violence against women and children in their communities. Additionally, she raises awareness about critical issues such as human trafficking, online abuse, juvenile justice, and the impacts of drug wars and substance abuse. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Luna Legal Resource Centre for Women and Children in Davao City.

As the Alternate Vice Chair for Mindanao in the Mediators Network for Sustainable Peace (MedNet), which is supported by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and funded by the UNDP, she conducts training sessions for local mediators in regions such as Basilan and Sulu Tawi-Tawi.

Peace Journey

Ms. Canave-Anung’s international network presents her with vast opportunities. She led a Grounded Theory research project on the impact of the Philippines’ Local Government Code on people’s organisations in rural areas, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In 2002, she spearheaded the first evaluation and organisational re-engineering of her non-governmental development organisation (NGDO), the Institute of Primary Health Care, using participatory evaluation tools and a Futures Thinking approach.

Then, from 2003 to 2006, she served as Regional Field Coordinator for Save the Children and Management Sciences for Health on a health governance project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She partnered with Local Government Units in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley to promote health governance through increased budget allocations for family planning and health programmes. As Regional Coordinator, she led Participatory Health Budgeting Workshops in 223 rural communities of Davao del Norte and 235 in Compostela Valley. She assisted in the implementation of the five-year Community Health Development Plans (2006-2010) for these provinces, with programmes and funding allocations for tuberculosis drugs and the family planning supplies programme.

Between 2006 and 2018, she conducted operations audits of World Vision National Offices worldwide, focusing on child protection, education, maternal health, disaster management and emergency (DME) approaches, human resources, agriculture, and emergency response programmes.  Within that period, since 2012, she has been a Subject Matter Expert for child protection, sponsorship, and DME at World Vision. 

Moreover, from July 2022 to April 2023, she was contracted as a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for the BARMM’s Coaching and Mentoring programme, enhancing the Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation systems of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region's Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education, funded by PATHWAYS (Australia).

Success Stories

Ms. Canave-Anung has extensive experience in the management, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of various projects in areas such as community health, child sponsorship, child protection, community organising and development, gender-sensitive participatory action research and planning, sustainable agriculture, and capability-building programmes for different sectors, including grassroots organisations, government health personnel, and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs).