UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
 October 1994

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the world's largest multilateral grant development assistance organization. Through a global network of 132 offices, UNDP works with people and governments in 175 countries and territories in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab States, and Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. This network of country offices renders varied services from providing upstream policy advise, designing country-wide programmes, and devising and executing specific projects, to monitoring, evaluating and enhancing ongoing development work. These activities are undertaken in partnership with the governments and the people of developing countries. In designing the 1992-1996 programming cycle, UNDP's Governing Council identified six major areas of focus: poverty eradication and grass-roots participation; environment and natural resources management; technical cooperation among developing countries; management development; transfer and adaptation of technology, and women development.

Although UNDP has long been associated with concerns and issues of indigenous peoples, recent developments, in particular general acceptance of the concept of sustainability and renewed emphasis on basic needs and participatory approaches, have influenced and changed the direction of support.

Of special importance in this context is the adoption by UNDP of the concept of sustainable human development. This is an approach to development that gives "the highest priority to poverty reduction, productive employment, social integration and environmental regeneration. It brings human members into balance with the coping capacities of societies and the carrying capacities of nature. It accelerates economic growth and translates it into improvements in human lives, without destroying the natural capital needed to protect the opportunities of future generations. It also recognizes that not much can be achieved without a dramatic improvement in the status of women and the opening of all economic opportunities to women. And sustainable human development empowers people-enabling them to design and participate in the processes and events that shape their lives."

UN General Assembly resolution A/45/164 (1990), which proclaimed 1993 as the International Year of the World's Indigenous People and activities in preparation of the International Year further encouraged and shaped UNDP's assistance for indigenous peoples. In pursuance of this resolution and of resolution A/46/128, adopted on 17 December 1992 and the recommendations of the inter-Agency Technical Consultation Meetings on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples prior to the International Year and of the Specialized Agency Consultation with Indigenous Representatives on the occasion of the opening of the International Year for the World's Indigenous People on 11 December 1992, UNDP undertook various efforts to streamline its support for indigenous peoples and to involve them in the identification and implementation of projects that affect them:

• In anticipation of the International Year, in 1992, UNDP's Administrator presented a report to the Governing Council n the International Year for the World's Indigenous People. On the basis of a process of consultations with a range of indigenous people's organizations and experts, the report suggested that UNDP support should be guided by the overall framework of human development and be made part of two of UNDP's most relevant major areas of focus for 1992 - 1996, i.e. poverty eradication and grass-roots participation, and environmental and natural resources management. The areas of support that were identified, were: Cultural revitalization; Improvement of living standards; Preservation of natural resources and environmental conservation; Economic and technological development.

• UNDP appointed, within its Bureau for Programme Policy and Evaluation, a focal point for indigenous peoples who assists UNDP's specialized units in programme development and mainstreaming existing activities in support of indigenous peoples and indigenous people's organizations and in liaising with NGOs, Indigenous Peoples' organizations and UN system agencies.

During the Year of the World's Indigenous People, UNDP started a number of activities supporting indigenous peoples and their organizations. At Headquarters level, UNDP initiated, actively participated in, and supported, a number of consultations with indigenous peoples:

• UNDP financially supported and participated in the UN Consultation on the situation of the indigenous peoples of the Artic and Siberian regions, organized by the Centre for Human Rights and held in Khabarovsk, Russia, from 6 to 10 September.

• In April 1993, UNDP organized an informal consultation with indigenous representatives on the protection of indigenous knowledge. Based on the outcome of this consultation UNDP commissioned from the Rural Advancement Foundation International, a study on the conservation and development of indigenous knowledge in the context of intellectual property systems. The study, entitled Conserving Indigenous Knowledge: integrating two systems of innovation, was released in October 1994.

• UNDP representatives from Headquarters and from the Country Office in Honduras participated in the National Garifuna Council Annual Convention, in New York, 5-7 March 1993.

• UNDP representatives participated in the First International Conference on the Cultural & Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in New Zealand/Aotearoa from 12-18 June 1993.

• Operational guidelines, based on the ILO Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, Convention 169, and the Draft Declaration of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations as agreed upon at its eleventh session in 1993, are currently being drafted.

At the country level, UNDP initiated various projects and programmes, including the following:

• In Colombia, UNDP started, in 1993, a project that will (i) assist in the creation of management communities through training in leadership, planning and administration; (ii) support the Government in designing policy, strategy and managerial mechanisms of three revolving funds for indigenous peoples, that were established with the support of WFP; (iii) support communities in formulating projects in the productive, environmental and social areas to be presented to the funds, as well as the provision of technical assistance to the effective implementation of those projects by the beneficiaries.

• Also in Colombia, UNDP co-sponsored, with the ILO and the World Bank, a Government workshop on land tenure issues and the management of natural resources by indigenous communities.

• In Ecuador, a project, partly financed by funds from the Global Environment Fund (GEF), was initiated, in 1993, to enhance the capacity of indigenous communities to manage their natural resources.

• In Honduras, a project, funded from the Capacity 21 Programme was approved in 1993. The objective is to work with indigenous groups in the most ecologically-fragile forest areas of Honduras to build legal instruments, technical resources, and human capacities needed to harmonize external pressures with environmental protection for the collective benefit of Honduran society. The project consists of three independent modules: (i) development of a consolidated legal framework for indigenous settlements located within ecologically-fragile forests, creating "buffer zones" to contain deforestation by cattle ranchers and migrant farmers; (ii) selective strengthening of traditional public administration systems; and (iii) development of a package of demonstration micro-projects at the village level.

• In Nicaragua, UNDP supported the preparation and organization of the XIth Inter-American Indigenous Congress.

• In Panama, a project was initiated that aims at improving the income and living conditions of the Ngobes, while preserving their cultural identity. The project's immediate objectives include (i) the creation of environmental awareness through the application of agricultural productive practices incorporating conservation techniques; (ii) the increase of productivity of traditional household consumption crops through the application of simple technological innovations adopted to the needs of small producers; (iii) improved access and communications in the Ngobe region. Operational activities started mid 1994.

• A regional programme was initiated in South-East Asia which addresses the issues of poverty eradication and grassroots participation of highland peoples in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. The immediate objectives of the programme are to (i) increase government, non-government and highland community organizational capacities in participatory planning and management of the development of highland communities; (ii) improve ethnic self-reliance through traditional and new mechanisms to ensure that the resources of the highland people themselves, particularly women, contribute to the planning and implementation of development programmes; and (iii) expand and/or establish structures and procedures directed at the participatory dissemination and exchange of highland people's knowledge and experiences as well as development approaches and resources.

• In July 1994, the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, started a process of collaboration between UNDP, other bilateral and multilateral agencies, local and international NGO's and indigenous communities and organizations, in order to identify and develop, at the country level, concrete operational activities to address the development problems faced by indigenous peoples. The result of these activities at the national level and follow-up initiatives will be discussed at a regional meeting which is expected to take place early 1995.

• Based on the draft of the above mentioned study on the conservation and protection of indigenous knowledge, a preparatory assistance project was prepared that aims at raising the awareness of indigenous peoples about the value of their knowledge and at giving them the opportunity to identify and discuss strategies that would promote the preservation and the protection of their knowledge, intellectual and cultural property and customary practices. For this purpose the project will fund three regional meetings of indigenous peoples' organizations. A first meeting of this kind was organized by the "Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica, (COICA) and was held in September 1994 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Other meetings will be held in Asia and in the Pacific, in early 1995.

• UNDP has begun preparations for a small-grants programme for indigenous peoples with the objective to establish a dialogue at the national level between the Government, indigenous peoples and UNDP, and to build and enhance the capacity of indigenous peoples in the areas identified in the Administrator's report, i.e., Cultural revitalization; Improvement of living standards; Preservation of natural resources and environmental conservation; Economic and technological development.

It will be UNDP's goal to raise enough funds to offer the small-grants programme in at least ten countries.

For more information on UNDP and indigenous peoples, please contact the focal point for indigenous peoples at One United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. Tel.: (212) 906 5347; fax (212) 906 5313.