Ferrer is a founding member of the Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators. She was a member of the UN Standby Team of Mediators for three years, her projected included mediation support for UN missions in Afghanistan, Maldives, Iraq, and Georgia. Previously, she headed the government panel that negotiated and signed the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Ferrer is a retired professor of politics from the University of the Philippines (UP). She once served as director of the Third World Studies Center and convener of UP’s Program on Peace, Democratization and Human Rights and was a visiting professor in several Asian universities.

Currently, she sits as a member of the board of trustees of the International Crisis Group and Geneva-based Interpeace. She sits in the advisory boards of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders in New York, the Peace Treaty Initiative of the Institute for Integrated Transitions in Barcelona, and the Negotiations Strategies Institute at Harvard University.

Recent awards received by Professor Ferrer include the 2024 Rotary Peace Award given in the Philippines, the 2023 Ramon Magsaysay Award given in Asia by the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, the 2015 Hilary Rodham Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security given by Georgetown University Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and Xavier University’s 2015 William Masterson, SJ Award . She was listed among five Filipino women in the Forbes Asia 2024 List of 50 over 50.

An active peace advocate in her country, she co-led the civil society-initiated drafting of the National Action Plan (NAP) on UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The Philippine NAP was formally adopted by the government in March 2010.

As the chair of the government panel, Professor Ferrer became the first woman in the world to sign as chief negotiator a major peace agreement with a non-state armed group. She continued in this capacity to oversee the CAB’s implementation until the end of the term of President Simeon Benigno Aquino III in June 2016. Her memoir on the talks, “We Chose Peace: An Insider’s Account of the Bangsamoro Peace Talks” was released by the UP Press in 2024.