“Indigenous institutions and values [are being] ignored and devalued.”

Kimaren Ole Riamit of the Indigenous Livelihood Partners (ILEPA) in Kenya, asserted the elements crucial for attaining Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 in a side event for the 20th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) on 21 April 2021. The elements should include “mutually respectful sustainable partnership, support for indigenous engagement, security of livelihoods, and protection of environmental defenders,” he said.

“We see the issues faced by indigenous peoples caused by their non-inclusion in the different decision-making bodies. There is a need to prioritize their recognition to successfully achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16 and all the different goals,” pointed out Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the executive director of Tebtebba and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNSRRIP) as she consolidated the reports made by the different panel speakers.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the executive director of Tebtebba and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNSRRIP)

“The stories that we heard today are only part of the bigger picture. The recognition of indigenous systems and the capacity of indigenous peoples to adapt to the different changes can hugely help in the achievement of the SDGs,” she added.

Likewise, Mrinal Kanti Tripura shared the contributions made by Maleya Foundation in its mission to empower the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, mentioning that the Foundation started working toward the community’s self-determination, development, and conflict transformation. He, then, stressed on the need to achieve positive peace and look for ways to eradicate invisible violence as well as visible ones.

Nadia Soldevilla Pacheco, project manager of the Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru (CHIRAPAQ), narrated the plight of Andean and Amazonian communities during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, mentioning that “the lack of access to safe water, sanitation, basic infrastructure, and equipment and free and adequate health services has made them even more vulnerable than before the advent of the disease.” She added that “in the absence of a specific response from the state, the indigenous peoples themselves have promoted their own processes that guarantee their survival.  [They] combine traditional practices with Western medicine, with an emphasis on prevention, care and collective management of disease, and healthy eating.”

In the same manner, Bernice See of Tebtebba Foundation recounted their experiences with regard to undertaking the Indigenous Navigator initiative with indigenous peoples in the Philippines. She related the challenges they face with regard to displacement caused by political conflict, tenurial issues over their lands and territories, and insufficient access to social services, among others. She, however, detailed the manifold indigenous practices that continue to aid indigenous communities in the Philippines as they strive to “navigate towards the achievement of just, peaceful and inclusive societies.”

Meanwhile, “mentoring younger generations is helpful in sustaining indigenous peoples’ work on policy advocacy and in sustaining their communities” asserted Maribeth Bugtong-Biano, director of the Elatia Training Institute. She added that “trained, young indigenous peoples are now engaging in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Green Climate Fund. And they help further strengthen their indigenous institutions.”

The side event entitled “Achieving SDG16: Building community resilience and strong indigenous peoples’ institutions” was attended by a total 47 participants and indigenous panel speakers from the different regions of the world.  The UNPFII is a high-level advisory body to the Economic and Social Council established in 2000 with the primary mandate to deal with indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health, and human rights. It holds an annual session at its headquarters in New York, USA but had to hold most of its events virtually in 2020 and this year due to the pandemic.

Download presentations here.

“Whether in person or virtually, indigenous peoples need to have a seat in the decision-making table. But the pandemic highlighted historical and long-standing marginalization of indigenous peoples in terms of necessary infrastructures and technology for communications.”

According to Helen Biangalen-Magata, Tebtebba Communications Officer and one of the resource speakers of the training, “the event is a pre-requisite for many indigenous peoples so that they are not further left behind in many virtual processes happening now—processes that require their engagement, processes that require their voice, processes that require their presence”.

Tebtebba and the ELATIA Indigenous Peoples’ Training Institute launched a three-day internal Training-Workshop on Enhancing the Use of Social Media and Digital Security on 14 to 16 April 2021 in Baguio City, Philippines, which was participated in by the different staff of Tebtebba.

The training was intended to improve the capacity of the different key program staff to coach or mentor indigenous partner organizations and communities towards their meaningful engagement in various national and international processes being done virtually.

The training-workshop revolved around the use and management of the different social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Zoom. Several hours were also used to discuss digital security including password and contact details protection. The activity involved experience sharing and identifying the dos and don’ts of attending different online meetings. Various software applications were also introduced to further enhance content creation skills.

Because the pandemic heavily impacted the ease of conducting face-to-face gatherings, more and more activities shifted online including dialogues between indigenous peoples and the government, advocacy-oriented webinars, regular partner consultations, and so forth. In these varied virtual meetings, the necessity of learning and improving social media use were, in the process, identified.

 “With the difficult pandemic situation, the training-workshop was a very timely initiative. The skills learned during the event will definitely enhance our collective capacity as indigenous peoples engaged in advocacy work, bringing forth the different indigenous peoples concerns and priority issues to various local and global processes,” enthused Grace T. Balawag of Tebtebba’s Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Program. “These virtual platforms must, indeed, be maximized so that our key advocacy messages may be effectively communicated and disseminated. Hopefully, we can extend such significant trainings especially to our local partners to further enhance our collective indigenous peoples’ advocacy work.”

The social media training is an offshoot of the previous Dayalogo series that was facilitated by Tebtebba between indigenous peoples and relevant national government agencies in the Philippines that began in 2020. The training was made possible with the support from Bread for the World.