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Responses
Building on the work on cultural indicators initiated in 2002 in collaboration with the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), the Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development Initiative is supporting indigenous peoples organizations to develop a clearer and more empirical understanding of the relationship between culture and sustainable agriculture and rural development. In particular, it is working with IITC to develop a paper on the role of culture in SARD focusing on indigenous peoples and their communities, cultural dimensions of agricultural and food systems and the role of culture in sustainable livelihoods and in indigenous concepts of poverty and well-being. Pending availability of funding, two parallel processes are envisaged for ensuring both indigenous peoples' and UN agencies' participation and contributions to the paper and for addressing the concerns that the paper raises through the work of these organizations.
This work is expected to strengthen indigenous peoples' efforts to influence policies and development programs that affect their traditional food and agricultural systems. It is also expected to identify some practical entry points, tools and indicators that can be used to foster more culturally appropriate agriculture and rural development interventions.
