Indigenous Peoples – WB Safeguards Policy Review

Concerns and recommendations of indigenous peoples on the Safeguard Policy review of the World Bank

We, the undersigned Indigenous Peoples organizations and support NGOs, wish to express our dismay over the long drawn process of the World Bank’s Safeguard Policy Review. Since the Policy Review was announced on November 15, 2010 (during the High Level Dialogue between Indigenous Peoples and World Bank Senior Management), no concrete steps to engage with indigenous peoples have been undertaken on the review process. Further, no draft policy has been made publicly available till today. In the recent information update in Panama (intergovernmental meeting in mid October 2011), indigenous peoples were informed that the process of review has been extended to end of 2013.

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The Indigenous Peoples’ Policy should thereby be maintained as a stand alone policy with the incorporation of the following elements: (see attached letter),