The Permanent Forum reiterates its recommendations on the establishment of the indigenous fellowship programme within its secretariat and requests Governments, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), other donors and foundations to contribute to the fellowship programme so that it can be launched and administered in 2007.
The Permanent Forum invites Governments, United Nations organizations and their regional offices, universities and research bodies to support the convening of regional workshops and other activities in the Arctic, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific to identify indicators relevant to indigenous peoples’ poverty and well-being, traditional knowledge and biodiversity, with a view to monitoring progress in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Special attention should be paid to indigenous peoples at the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development to be held during the sixty-first session of the General Assembly in New York on 14 and 15 September 2006. Given that indigenous peoples are closely tied to their communities, the impact exerted by their migration is often broader than that exerted by individual migration. In particular, indigenous migration affects the collective rights of indigenous communities and accordingly has consequences for entire communities.
Owing to the cross-cutting nature of gender equality, it is also critical that gender perspectives be fully integrated into the implementation and monitoring of all the other objectives associated with the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals.
In follow-up to the Millennium Development Goals, the Permanent Forum urges Governments and agencies to quantify the number of projects and programmes that they are undertaking in response to the recommendations of the Permanent Forum. It would also be helpful if they could, when reporting, report on progress in the process of implementation of recommendations, instead of merely enumerating activities. Reports could be more analytical, not just activity-based, and should pick up on relevant recommendations from past sessions that addressed the necessary theme.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations organizations provide technical assistance and convene, in cooperation with indigenous peoples’ organizations, regional workshops on the special theme of the sixth session of the Permanent Forum, namely, “Territories, lands and natural resources”, with the participation of Permanent Forum members, and other experts, indigenous peoples’ representatives, indigenous parliamentarians, State representatives, and representatives of the United Nations system, in order to formulate recommendations for consideration, as part of its preparatory work for the sixth session. The Permanent Forum further recommends that States, organizations and donors provide resources for these regional workshops.
The Permanent Forum recommends that bilateral donors increase official development assistance (ODA) to the level of 0.7 per cent of gross national product, as agreed in the outcome document of the International Conference on Financing for Development, as stated in the Millennium Development Goals and as reaffirmed in the 2005 World Summit Outcome, and also recommends that the donors ensure that targeted ODA is available for indigenous peoples. ODA will be used primarily for reinforcing indigenous peoples’ own priorities and for programmes to promote their development with identity.
The Permanent Forum is deeply concerned that the problems and discrimination facing indigenous children and youth are not reflected in the Millennium Development Goals, and it urges States and United Nations organizations to develop culturally sensitive policies, programmes and projects that fully incorporate indigenous children and youth into achieving the Goals.
There generally appears to be positive recognition of the approach to Goal 1 suggested by the Permanent Forum, while there has been less attention paid to Goal 2. In both areas, there appears to be an increase in the number of projects being implemented in Latin America, with limited projects in Asia, and one or two projects in Africa. This is particularly the case under Goal 2, where there is a general lack of reporting from Asia or Africa on intercultural/bilingual education projects or programmes in this area.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative taken by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the secretariat of the Permanent Forum to convene a first expert meeting on the nexus between indigenous peoples and migration and endorses the recommendations of that meeting and requests further inter-agency cooperation and collaboration regarding data collection and case studies on indigenous peoples and migration, in particular the creation of a task force to specifically address migration issues of indigenous peoples within the existing Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues for the Permanent Forum. Such a task force could assist with studies by indigenous leaders and experts and promote capacity-building projects dealing with the migration of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum urges developed countries to adopt national processes to implement the Goals with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples within those countries.
The Permanent Forum also recommends that States, United Nations organizations and indigenous peoples’ organizations strengthen the necessary communication, education and information infrastructure and support networks of educators on indigenous issues. Information and communication technologies (ICT) for indigenous peoples must be supported in order to close the technological and information gap.