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RIGHTS: Under Fire, World Bank Launches Indigenous Peoples Fund
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 13 (IPS) - Under fire from aboriginal groups for funding massive projects that spoil their land and resources, the World Bank has launched a fund to provide small grants for indigenous peoples' development activities.
Called the 'Grants Facility for Indigenous Peoples', the 700,000-dollar programme is expected to be operating before the end of June.
''It is not a huge amount of money, but it is symbolic of our relationship with indigenous peoples,'' says Ian Johnson, Bank vice president and head of its environmentally and socially sustainable development network.
The aim of the fund, he said, is to help the World Bank build partnerships with indigenous peoples' development efforts.
The Bank has faced widespread criticism from indigenous groups for funding massive anti-environmental projects, including mining and oil pipeline schemes.
The projects have destroyed the homes and livelihoods of indigenous peoples in countries such as Cameroon, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and India.
Asked for his response to the criticism, Johnson told IPS: ''We don't have a perfect record, but we do have a good track record.''
Of the initial 700,000 dollars, the Bank plans to provide 150,000 dollars to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, created in July 2000 and currently meeting in New York. The Forum, the only international platform for the world's indigenous peoples, advises the U.N. system on indigenous issues.
One of the Bank's many critics expressed strong reservations about the new funding facility.
But first, said Melina Silverstone Scher of the Washington-based Bank Information Centre (BIC), the Permanent Forum still has to formally accept the Bank's offer.
Forum members did not respond after Johnson announced the fund before the annual assembly Tuesday morning.
''A more important question'', Silverstone Scher told IPS, ''was whether the new fund will be under the control of the indigenous peoples or the Bank''. The mechanics of the funding facility have to be worked out, she added.
Even if the Bank were to provide financing for a project, it would still have to be approved by a national government, she pointed out.
There are more than 300 million indigenous peoples worldwide, most of them disadvantaged and marginalized by their governments.
Johnson said the Bank expects to build on the initial 700,000 dollars by seeking voluntary contributions from donor nations.
The fund is designed to provide seed money averaging about 30,000 dollars per project. Grant recipients would be expected to make a cash or in-kind contribution of a minimum of 20 percent of the project's cost.
The programme will be governed by an advisory board of indigenous leaders, donor agencies, governments, representatives of the Permanent Forum and the World Bank, Johnson added.
''The grants facility provides the Bank with a mechanism to play a supporting role at a critical moment in the evolution of the worldwide indigenous peoples movement,'' he said.
The criteria and process for the selection of board members will be determined in consultations with the Permanent Forum.
According to the proposed criteria, which must be approved by the future board and the World Bank, proposed projects must focus on efforts that directly benefit indigenous peoples in "a culturally appropriate and gender inclusive manner''.
They must deal with development themes recommended by the Permanent Forum, while proponents must be indigenous peoples organisations working on issues of indigenous peoples development.
The only other financing facility for indigenous peoples is the U.N. Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations.
Its chair, Vicky Tauli Corpuz, said the fund has helped provide much-needed visibility to indigenous peoples in the U.N. system.
Its continuing existence, she added, is evidence of a growing partnership between governments and indigenous peoples.
(END/2003)
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