30 projects approved under the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility

IFAD and the World Bank have signed an agreement to transfer the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility to IFAD, which will administer the Facility for the first time this year.

The Facility invites applications from indigenous peoples’ organizations and communities, as well as organizations that work with them, for grants to fund projects, innovative approaches and partnerships that promote the development of indigenous peoples and help them fulfil their aspirations.

The Facility provides small grants of US$10,000 to US$30,000 to micro projects designed and implemented by indigenous peoples’ communities and organizations. In response to IFAD first call for grant proposals in 2007, indigenous communities and organizations submitted more than 1,000 applications from 86 countries around the world. A board composed of mostly indigenous members manages the facility.

In June 2007, the Facility approved the financing of 30 micro projects in 24 countries for a total of US$603,000. Disbursement of 30 grants was finalized in December 2007. The projects address:

• protection and patenting of intellectual property rights
• culturally appropriate ethno-tourism models
• mapping of indigenous and tribal peoples’ territories and cultures
• management of natural resources and protection of biodiversity
• collection of disaggregated data on indigenous and tribal populations
• management of community-based forestry
• capacity-building to revitalize cultural heritage and traditional knowledge
• capacity-building on indigenous peoples’ rights
• improvement of health services through the integration of traditional knowledge systems
• disaster and climate change risk management based on traditional knowledge and practices
• improvement of livelihoods through sustainable agricultural practices, off-farm activities,  enterprise development and access to market
• women’s empowerment through capacity building on cultural identity and traditional handicrafts, and crop diversification

Hot links The Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility: A promising new link between grassroots indigenous peoples’ organizations and the international community Arabic | English | French | Spanish Projects approved under the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility Contact information Ms Antonella Cordone Coordinator for Indigenous and Tribal Issues Policy Division International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD Via Paolo Di Dono, 44 00142 Rome Italy Fax: 0039 06 5459 3065 Fax: 0039 06 5043463 Email: indigenouspeoples@ifad.org