Welcome to the United Nations
Addressee: Member States, UN System
Full Text
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.
Responses
UNDP is implementing a demand driven indigenous specific programme in Asia. The $2 mln Regional Initiative on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Development was established within the framework of the UNDP policy of engagement with indigenous peoples and has three interlinked strategies: (a) to enhance inter-country sharing of experiences on priority issues, particularly with regard to reducing the incidence of poverty among indigenous peoples; (b) to build capacity among all stakeholders, strengthen information networks and knowledge management systems, particularly among indigenous peoples; and (c) to support their full and effective participation in policy dialogue at all levels. The regional initiative has developed a broad and diverse programme of work aimed at creating a space for regional cooperation and dialogue for Governments, indigenous peoples, UN agencies and civil society. The initiative is based at the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok and is funded through UNDP core resources, an indication of the commitment of UNDP to indigenous issues as part of its policy and programmatic approach. The initiative has been endorsed by Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam and implements projects and activities in different countries around the region. It seeks to generate greater awareness of development challenges faced by indigenous peoples in the region and to strengthen the regional cooperation framework by emphasizing the need to bring indigenous peoples into the development discourse. It is overseen through a steering committee composed of indigenous peoples’ representatives, Governments and UNDP and is underpinned by rights-based development approaches. The initiative has been active in a number of projects during 2006, in close partnership with Governments, indigenous organizations and UN agencies working through UNDP country offices. In 2006, it led and partnered some 30 projects and programmes, including analytical research, gap analysis, pilot projects and capacity development, with gender as a cross-cutting issue. Work undertaken in the programme is broadly divided into the following strategic areas: (a) law and policy; (b) natural resource management and land; (c) access to justice; and (d) capacity development.
UNFPA has several programmes on indigenous and tribal peoples in the Asia-Pacific region. For instance, the India country office has undertaken several initiatives to conceptualize and design interventions to address the needs and rights of indigenous and tribal peoples by providing technical assistance to the state Government of Madhya Pradesh to focus on the health needs of indigenous and tribal peoples, particularly safe motherhood and child health. In Rajasthan, UNFPA is working to address indigenous and tribal women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS using community-based approaches, including media and interpersonal communication at village level. In Maharashtra, UNFPA provides technical and financial support to ensure comprehensive reproductive health services for indigenous and tribal peoples, build the capacity of indigenous women’s groups to promote prevention of sexually transmitted infection and HIV and to mobilize women’s indigenous groups on reproductive health and rights, gender issues and how to demand quality services. In Gujarat, UNFPA is supporting the State Government in reaching the goal of reducing maternal mortality among indigenous and tribal women. Another example of UNFPA interventions in the region is Indonesia. Under the sixth country programme (2002-2005), a community-based support system in favour of indigenous women was set up, with financial support to the community for referral of emergency obstetric care cases. During the project implementation, there were no maternal deaths recorded in the participating villages. In Myanmar, UNFPA is advocating before the Government to ensure that the areas with the most needs in terms of reproductive health (which coincide with the areas where indigenous peoples live) are addressed by the country programme.
Final Report of UNPFII Session 5 (2006)
Area of Work
