A Regional Steering Committee (RSC), composed of indigenous peoples’ representatives from FCPF countries in the region, acts as an external advisory body and ensures transparency. Its role was to prioritize national and regional needs, provide guidance as needed during supervision of national activities and implementation of activities, recommend organizations to be invited to submit sub-project proposals and review technical aspects of proposals and provide recommendations to the Recipient, facilitate exchange of information among IP communities and other stakeholders, and support the Recipient’s grievance and redress mechanisms among others. During its first face-to-face meeting, the members considered the roles were ambitious and financial resources were limited. As such, they agreed that their functions will be limited to advisory, monitoring assistance and other assistance (e.g., technical) whenever they could.
Serving on a voluntary basis, the incumbent members are from Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) in Nepal (South Asia); Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) in Indonesia, Center for Sustainable Development in Mountainous Areas (CSDM) in Vietnam and Cambodia Indigenous Youth Association (CIYA) in Cambodia (South East Asia); Nature Fiji Mareqeti-Viti in Fiji and Vanuatu Association of NGOs in Vanuatu (Pacific); and Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) based in Thailand as the convener.