Introduction

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) in 2018 approved its Indigenous Peoples Policy[1]. This policy is intended to assist the GCF in incorporating Indigenous Peoples’ (IP) considerations into decision-making processes as they work to achieve climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives[2]. 

The Indigenous Peoples policy of the Fund established the definition of structures that are essential for the incorporation of issues identified as relevant by Indigenous Peoples. One of these structures is the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group (IPAG), which was established to:

“(a) to provide advice to the indigenous peoples focal point, national designated authorities, and accredited entities and executing entities on GCF-financed activities affecting indigenous peoples; (b) to review the implementation and monitoring of this Policy, particularly on the appropriate modality to enhance dialogue among indigenous peoples, GCF, states, accredited entities and executing entities, and other experts; and (c) provide guidance and advice to the Board as may be requested”[3].

It is understood by Indigenous Peoples that the IPAG is the platform to more efficiently incorporate the rights-based approach that Indigenous Peoples expect in climate finance actions that may affect their lands and territories. 

The Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group to the Green Climate Fund (IPAG)

After a considerable time of waiting, the GCF issued the public call for regional nominations for the IPAG in November 2021. The definition of the representatives constituting the IPAG was made through the self-selection of Indigenous Peoples through the large regional networks.  The IPAG will be constituted by 4 representatives of Indigenous Peoples, and their respective alternates from the regions of the Global South: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Pacific. 

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[1]   The Indigenous Peoples policy decision can be found in documentation B.19/11.

[2]   See the Indigenous Peoples Policy of the Green Climate Fund. B.19/11 at: https://www.greenclimate.fund/document/indigenous-peoples-policy

[3] Indigenous People Policy. B.19/11. Párrafo 81.

“The struggle is not about to end. These struggles are intergenerational.”

Stanley Kimaren ole Riamit, Executive Director of Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners (ILEPA) in Narok, Kenya, elaborated on the significance of the training of second-generation indigenous leaders during the recent opening session of the third segment of the virtual training on policy advocacy on 31 August 2021.

Endorsed by the different partners and members of Elatia, Nia Tero and the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development (IPMG-SDG), about 40 young indigenous leaders are participating in the virtual training on policy advocacy that focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The training particularly aims to provide basic information about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, its background, and its links to indigenous peoples’ rights and aspirations, as well as the opportunities and challenges it provides.

The training also hopes to offer practical guidance on how indigenous peoples can engage in sustainable development processes in order to assert their right to self-determined development and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development for all. In addition, the training will provide participants with an overview of the Indigenous Navigator (IN) as a monitoring tool for the implementation of the indigenous peoples’ rights in the SDGs. The participants will also be taught necessary skills in policy advocacy work on the SDGs.

The initiative’s pool of trainers includes indigenous leaders and experts who are actively engaging in various processes on the SDGS with the IPMG-SDG, namely Joan Carling, Eileen Mairena Cunningham, Robie Halip and some guest trainers.

Culminating three months after, on November, the training is jointly implemented by the ILEPA and the Elatia Indigenous Peoples Training Institute with support from Tebtebba, Nia Tero, and Bread for the World.

A total of 578 indigenous leaders including indigenous women and youth from Nicaragua, Nepal, and the Philippines completed the training program on Indigenous peoples’ sustainable and self-determined development. With most of its activities implemented during the first half of 2021, the training supports the continuing learning of second-generation indigenous leaders.

In Nepal, the Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Research and Development (CIPRED) implemented virtual and in-person training on policy advocacy last June and July 2021. Particularly, participants including indigenous youth and women from Nepal’s Lamjung district were oriented on the promotion and recognition of indigenous peoples’ customary practices, traditional knowledge and skills for the sustainable management of resources and community development.

Photo: CIPRED

In addition, the training provided an opportunity for the youth to learn various customary practices from their elders. The youths also appreciated the importance of social media in culture and values information dissemination and awareness-raising.

In the Philippines, Silingang Dapit sa Sidlakang Mindanao (SILDAP-SE) conducted orientation-trainings, community workshops, and focused group discussions in six communities of indigenous peoples in the provinces of Davao de Oro and Davao del Norte. It is notable that most of the participants realized during the orientations that there is a need for more work to be done in relation to their self-governance and to the challenges besetting their culture such as the vanishing of their language, among others.

Photo: SILDAP-SE

Michael Guna, a Mansaka from Davao de Oro and an indigenous peoples’ mandatory representative to the local government, posited that the management of their ancestral domain and the utilization of its resources must be governed by indigenous peoples themselves and not by migrants. He expressed a desire to initiate the formulation of a local ordinance that would ensure the sustainability of their indigenous knowledge and practices. 

In Nicaragua, the Centro para la Autonomía y Desarollo de los Pueblos Indigénas (CADPI) held community workshops for the Miskitus and Mayangnas of the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. Discussions revolved around global issues affecting them including the impacts of climate change in their communities.

Photo: CADPI

“Mainly, we identify the different challenges facing each of the communities and, among them, find the common challenges, the different challenges per community,” expressed Larry Salomón, a community facilitator, during the training.

He stressed that one of the issues faced by the indigenous peoples in the Sauna As Territory is the conflict with settlers from Honduras who are illegally possessing community properties. In addition to that is the destruction and deterioration of their environment.

Echoing the sentiments of other participants from the three countries in terms of the trainings conducted in their communities, Gustavo Sebastian Lino, President of GTI Sauna As, said that the said training is essential because they get to see the reality that indigenous peoples confront not only within their community but also in other parts of the world. He stressed that the training opened spaces of knowledge that indigenous peoples have around the world which can, then, help the participants create better strategies and design change paradigms to better govern their communal property. “So that we can have security, protection, and defense,” he explained.

CIPRED, CADPI and SILDAP which are part of Elatia, a global partnership of indigenous peoples on climate change, forests, and sustainable development, also localized the IPSSDD Training Course guide being used by the Elatia Indigenous Peoples Training Institute, further allowing learners to appreciate its contents and relate it to their corresponding, specific situations.

Affected by the COVID-19 restrictions, the activities in the said countries were implemented with the support of Tamalpais Trust Fund through Tebtebba’s continuous project, Realizing indigenous peoples’ sustainable, self-determined development (IPSSDD) through training of next generation indigenous leaders, including women and youth.

(From reports of CIPRED, CADPI and SILDAP-SE and interview excerpts from the video, Chuklla, produced by CADPI.)

Summary

The population of indigenous peoples in the Philippines has not been reliably established until now. With the inclusion of an ethnicity variable in the 15th Census on Population and Housing in September 2020, we hope to finally see a close estimate of the number of indigenous peoples in the country and where they are with the inclusion of an ethnicity variable. Indigenous peoples have not been adequately and properly reflected in any census because of the lack of the proper ethnicity variable in the census tool, the questionable conduct of the census, and the lack of study on how best to make the census, or any national survey for that matter. In other words, indigenous peoples have been left behind.

Under the mantra of “Nothing about us, without us”, indigenous peoples the whole world over, together with partners, came out with the Indigenous Navigator Initiative to develop a tool to monitor the gaps in the enjoyment of indigenous peoples of both their individual and collective rights and make duty-bearers accountable, and also to help them devise implementation strategies for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The UNDRIP does not have a monitoring mechanism and thus violations of indigenous peoples rights are often hidden under other categories and are not addressed properly, and often excluded from development efforts.

The Indigenous Navigator framework is based on the UNDRIP, with the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) added for the Philippines, and all other human rights instruments ratified by the country. It also integrates a number of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators and by collecting data related to the global SDG indicators, indigenous peoples can contribute data for local, national, and global SDG monitoring, and generate comparable data to monitor if indigenous peoples are left behind.

In 2015, the Philippines joined world leaders in adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development comprising of 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 related targets intended to be achieved by 2030.

Among other things the country has to do are to affirm the 17 SDGs that seek to realize the human rights of all, and pledge to ‘leave no one behind’ and to reach those furthest behind first. These will reflect the country’s obligation and ambitious vision to recognize the fundamental human rights principles of non-discrimination and equality in the development process.

The final results of the SDGs will depend on how the Agenda is implemented at national and local levels. If the implementation contributes to the realization of the indigenous peoples’ rights, as enshrined in the UNDRIP and for the Philippines, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), it will help overcome the current discrimination against and the human rights challenges faced by indigenous peoples. In contrast, if efforts to achieve the Agenda ignore indigenous peoples’ aspirations and rights, it may again contribute to or even entrench the marginalisation of and discrimination against indigenous peoples and undermine their well-being, thus again, leaving them behind.

If the 2030 Agenda should address the challenges faced by indigenous peoples, there are three key aspects that must be considered:

• Indigenous peoples must be protected from adverse impacts of mainstream development, which may undermine their rights and well-being;
• Indigenous peoples have the right to fully participate and benefit from general development efforts;
• Indigenous peoples’ collective right to self-determined development must be supported.

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