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Addressee: Member States, United Nations agencies, financial institutions and donors
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The Permanent Forum recommends that States, United Nations agencies, financial institutions and donors promote and support development processes led and carried out by indigenous women’s organizations, in accordance with articles 3 and 32 of the Declaration, for instance, leadership and capacity-building schools and the creation of funds managed by indigenous women.
Responses
IFAD reports (2011): For IFAD, gender equality and women’s empowerment are objectives of, and instruments for, poverty reduction. IFAD systematically incorporates a gender focus in its programmes, including improvement of the well-being of indigenous women. In 2010 several initiatives were supported by the Fund:
In March, a side event on the role of indigenous women in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, was jointly organized with the Secretariat of the UNPFII during the fifty-fourth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The event brought together indigenous women leaders from all regions and was aimed to share experience and information on indigenous women’s progress since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995.
In April, at the initiative of IFAD, an indigenous leader, Mirna Cunningham, participated as a panellist at the ECOSOC high-level panel discussion in New York, entitled “Who Feeds the World in 2010 and Beyond: Rural Women as Agents of Change and Champions of Global Food Security”. Ms Cunningham, current Member of the UNPFII, highlighted the role and diversity of indigenous women and their contribution to local and national development and food security, including by transferring traditional knowledge and practices to new generations. She also stressed IFAD’s experience and good practices in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the FAO’s work on cultural indicators for indigenous peoples. The response from Member States was very good.
In November, the Fund supported the first Global Gathering of Pastoralist Women in Gujarat (India). The event was organized by the Maldhari Rural Action Group (MARAG). Over 130 pastoral women from 27 countries gathered in the Guajarati village of Mera to discuss the challenges they face and how they can become agents of change. The gathering results are reflected in the Mera Declaration of the Global Gathering of Women Pastoralits, a call to action by pastoral women and men for greater recognition of pastoralism as a sustainable and valuable way of life and for specific policy support.
In addition to the above mentioned initiatives, it is worth noting that gender mainstreaming and women empowerment is a crosscutting issue through all the micro-projects financed through IFAD Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility. Several projects supported development initiatives by and with indigenous women. In detail, 10 projects exclusively addressed women, while in 17 projects, 50% of women and above were directly involved. women through capacity building and entrepreneurial development. For example one project in Pakistan aimed to enhance the economic empowerment of the Kalash women, through trainings and capacity building in honey bee keeping and marketing, creating economic opportunities for them. The project implemented in Niger sought to build the capacity of Touareg women and empower them economically through training in goat rearing. One project in Bangladesh aimed to improve the socioeconomic empowerment of the Chakma, Tripura and Marma communities, specifically indigenous women, through the adoption of integrated and sustainable farming technology to increase agricultural production and improve household food security.
In 2010, IFAD’s Office of evaluation undertook a Corporate-level evaluation on IFAD’s performance with regard to gender equality and women’s empowerment which showed that performance on gender equality and women’s empowerment is better in new projects and programmes than in older operations and that more efforts were made at IFAD, compared to other International Financing Institutions, to improve operational processes in its gender related work. A relatively weaker performance on gender was noted with regard to easing women’s workload and improving women’s well being. Overall, it was recommended to invest more in managing knowledge, learning and analytic work, policy dialogue and advocacy related to gender issues, both directly and through enhanced partnerships, including on the topic of indigenous women.
The Government of Spain reports (2011): España, a través de la AECID, ha financiado un convenio de Acción Contra el Hambre con un importe de 2.500.000 de euros para el “Fortalecimiento y apoyo a redes y organizaciones de mujeres indígenas en Ecuador, Bolivia, Perú, Colombia, Paraguay, Guatemala y México (Chiapas)” durante el periodo 2008-2012.
Asimismo, desde el Programa Indígena de la AECID, se ha apoyado en 2010 la iniciativa “Programa de equidad de género para la participación política de las mujeres en los municipios mancomunados del Departamento de Sololá”, de la Asociación Guatemalteca de Alcaldes y Autoridades Indígenas (AGAAI) con 100.000 euros.
Es necesario destacar, también, el apoyo de España a la Conferencia Internacional de Parlamentarias Indígenas: “Tejiendo Alianzas Estratégicas para la Gobernanza y Democracia en América Latina y el Caribe”, celebrada en Bolivia el pasado año.
For further information, see http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_tenth.html
Final Report of UNPFII Session 9 (2010)
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