Helping indigenous and tribal communities to help themselves

Indigenous peoples (IPs), some 400 million-strong throughout the world, disproportionately face discrimination and exclusion. They are too often among the poorest and illiterate, displaced by war and environmental disasters, dispossessed of ancestral lands and resources.

Through the INDISCO Programme, the office contributed to strengthening of people in their self-reliance and empowerment. The ILO worked with indigenous and tribal peoples to help them conserve their indigenous knowledge, strengthen their income generation capacities, and protect their natural resources.

INDISCO utilizes community-driven participatory development (CPDP) approaches for the implementation programmes and projects. The ILO, through INDISCO and promotion of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), contributed to the enactment of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) of 1987 and the formulation of medium-term Philippine development plans for IPs.

Current initiatives including Indigenous Peoples Development Programmes in Lake Sebu and Caraga are based on lessons learned from INDISCO projects in the country. Past donor agencies and institutions supported the programme. These include: Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Arab Gulf Fund (AGFUND), the Netherlands Government, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Rabobank Foundation, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Philippine Association International (PAI).

For further information please contact:

ILO Country Office for the Philippines (CO-Manila)
19^th Floor, Yuchengco Tower
RCBC Plaza, 6819 Ayala Avenue
1200 Makati City, Philippines
Tel. +632 8580 9900
Fax +632 8856 7597
Email