Millennium Development Goals and Indigenous Peoples: the challenge of inclusion

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aim to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and gender inequality and are at the heart of the global development agenda. In many developing countries, the MDGs are bringing a wide range of decision-makers and people groups together in support of a common development agenda. As the UN's global development network, UNDP is working to ensure that the MDGs continue to gain momentum.

MDGs and RIPP

RIPP recognizes the challenges in monitoring the progress of MDGs for indigenous peoples in the region. A recent ADB study on the poverty situation of indigenous peoples and ethic minorities in several countries in Southeast Asia could not establish trends in the relationship between poverty and ethnicity because there is a lack of disaggregated data. This presents a problem for monitoring the first MDG and surely similar problems will arise when monitoring the other goals.  In response, RIPP supports efforts to collect disaggregated data based on ethnicity and gender. 

MDGs and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

The Fourth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) focused on MDGs 1 and 2. With the the desire of gaining a deeper understanding of how the goals impact indigenous peoples, the Fifth Session of the Forum, held in May 2006, focused on all the MDGs.

The Forum noted that indigenous issues are often absent from MDGs. Unless these issues are adequately addressed, some processes seeking to achieve MDGs may accelerate the loss of indigenous peoples' means of subsistence.

MDGs and the UNDP

The UNDP stresses the need to adopt an integrated approach which takes into account the inter-linkages between livelihood security, the environment, hunger and sustainable resource management . It recognizes the need to raise awareness of the MDGs and its impact on indigenous peoples and to include their participation in the development of the MDG Country Reports that monitor the progress of the goals. In addition, greater coordination is needed between indigenous peoples' organizations and the Millennium Campaign.

Useful Reference documents:

• United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Report on Fourth Session (16-27 May 2005), E/2005/43.
• Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (2005) Indigenous Peoples and the Millennium Development Goals, paper submitted to the Fourth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, New York, 16-27 May.