At a Glance · Indigenous Peoples are distinct communities: the land on which they live and the natural resources on which they depend are inextricably linked to their identities and cultures. · There are approximately 300 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide. Although they make up roughly 4.5 percent of the global population, they account for about 10 percent of the poor, with nearly 80 percent of Indigenous People living in Asia. Improving their situation will require both widespread and sustainable economic growth as well as strategies to address multiple sources of disadvantage. · The World Bank is working actively and globally with Indigenous Peoples on a number of issues directly affecting them, including climate change. Recent Highlights The World Bank recently published a study on Indigenous Peoples, Poverty, and Development, a "global snapshot" of a set of indicators for Indigenous Peoples vis-à-vis national demographic averages. The report considers how social conditions have evolved in seven countries (Central African Republic, China, Congo, Gabon, India, Laos, and Vietnam) from 2005 to 2010, the first half of the UN's Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. The major finding of the study is that Indigenous Peoples worldwide continue to be among the poorest of the poor and continue to suffer from higher poverty, lower education, and a greater incidence of disease and discrimination than other groups. The second high-level direct dialogue with representatives of the global Indigenous Peoples Community was held in May, 2011. The conversation, focused on issues that are important to indigenous peoples and reflect their priorities, sought to ensure that similar Dialogues lead to mutually agreed outcomes for the World Bank and Indigenous Peoples. Among the issues that the indigenous leaders brought up in discussion was the need for engagement with the World Bank also to take place at the regional and country levels where the Bank finances its projects and engages in dialogue with governments. Participants agreed to establish a formal platform for regular, twice yearly dialogue between the World Bank and Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, given that they often live in environmentally sensitive areas (e.g., the Arctic region, tropical forests, coastal zones, mountains, deserts, etc.), and depend primarily on surrounding biodiversity for subsistence as well as cultural survival. At the same time, Indigenous Peoples hold traditional knowledge that may be critical to climate change adaptation. The Bank aims to build on Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge when assisting countries in developing strategies to adapt to changing environmental patterns and conditions. It will work to address the specific needs of Indigenous Peoples communities in dealing with climate change. The Indigenous Peoples issues in the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Land Degradation) agenda revolve around providing proper information to Indigenous Peoples about REDD, involving them in REDD design and implementation, learning from Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge, ensuring that the REDD design does not undermine customary rights to land and natural resources, and designing benefit sharing systems so that Indigenous Peoples benefit from REDD. There is now a better understanding that the REDD mechanisms need to properly address the challenges regarding land and resources as well as recognition of Indigenous Peoples knowledge systems, witnessed in the provisions of the December 2010 Cancun decision on REDD. Our Approach The World Bank seeks to position excluded groups, such as Indigenous Peoples, at the center of development agenda. This includes: 1. Strengthening and improving the policy and institutional frameworks affecting Indigenous Peoples and their relations with other members of society; 2. Building Indigenous Peoples’ capacity for self-development, based upon their cultural heritage and knowledge; 3. Demonstrating the important role that Indigenous Peoples can play in the management of fragile ecosystems and biodiversity conservation; and, 4. Disseminating experience and lessons learned from such indigenous development initiatives to national governments and the international donor community. Direct Engagement Over past years, the World Bank has engaged directly with Indigenous Peoples leaders and their representative Indigenous Peoples Organizations (IPOs). The Bank participates each year in a number of high-level international Indigenous Peoples’ fora, including the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York. In building wider alliances with the international Indigenous community, the Bank has collaborated with various IPOs in developing countries. A number of World Bank-led initiatives (Forest Carbon Partnership Facility; Forest Investment Program; Development Marketplace) provide direct grants to Indigenous Peoples organizations to strengthen their capacity in areas of forest and climate change. Related Links www.worldbank.org/indigenouspeoples www.worldbank.org/socialdevelopment Contacts: Karolina Ordon, (202) 458-5971, kordon@worldbank.org Robert Bisset, (202) 458-5191, rbisset@worldbank.org Updated August 2011 | 
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