Indigenous Peoples
OUR APPROACH TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Worldwide, there are an estimated 476.6 million Indigenous Peoples, representing 6.2 percent of the global population.
Indigenous Peoples manage or hold tenure rights to roughly one-fifth of the world's surface area, accounting for a significant portion of the world’s biodiversity and over half of the planet’s remaining intact forests. Indigenous–held lands consistently show lower deforestation rates, higher biodiversity integrity, and stronger carbon storage than comparable landscapes.
Indigenous Peoples experience disproportionately high levels of poverty. They make up only 6.2 percent of the global population, yet account for 18.2 percent of those living in extreme poverty worldwide.
In most countries Indigenous Peoples face gaps in access to services, infrastructure, and job opportunities. For example, a World Bank Flagship Study in Latin America found that Indigenous Peoples experienced greater gaps in access to basic services relative to non-Indigenous populations across multiple countries in the region, including electricity, piped water, sewerage, and education.
These inequalities are reflected in development outcomes such as life expectancy, maternal mortality and stunting. According to data from multiple countries, Indigenous Peoples’ life expectancy is almost always lower than that of the non-Indigenous population, with some countries exhibiting as much as a 20-year gap. Maasai women in Kenya are twice as likely to have had no antenatal care, and San women in Namibia are ten times more likely to give birth without skilled attendance. In Panama, Indigenous women are approximately six times more likely to die in childbirth than the non-indigenous women. Additionally, stunting prevalence among India’s Scheduled Tribe children is 8 percentage points higher than among non‑Indigenous populations, and Pakistan’s FATA Indigenous communities face a 14‑percentage‑point higher stunting burden. Information for seven Latin American countries in the region indicates the prevalence of stunting is over twice as high for indigenous children under the age of five as it is for non-Indigenous children.
These realities require policy and investment solutions built with Indigenous Peoples that support the underlying conditions necessary for Indigenous Peoples’ continued stewardship of the planet’s ecosystems while closing development gaps and expanding opportunities for Indigenous youth. The World Bank Group works closely with governments, Indigenous Peoples, the private sector and development partners to support Indigenous Peoples’ contributions as partners in achieving development solutions and a livable planet for all.
The World Bank Group is committed to working with client countries to support Indigenous Peoples’ role, voice, and benefits within national development processes. The World Bank works with Indigenous Peoples in four primary ways:
Knowledge and capacity-building through analytical work, policy dialogue, and institutional strengthening with client countries.
Investment and policy lending at the request of governments, to advance priority reforms and investments for and with Indigenous Peoples.
Environmental and Social Standard 7 (ESS7), currently applied in approximately 33 percent of World Bank investment lending across 57 countries, enhances development outcomes and to avoid or mitigate adverse impacts.
Direct financing to Indigenous Peoples’ organizations through climate and nature trust funds, subject to country ‘no objection’.
Over the past two decades, the World Bank has developed multiple analytical products that contribute to global understanding of Indigenous Peoples and their key development challenges, priorities, and innovations. The World Bank has also convened Indigenous Peoples through strategic dialogue and participation in key global and regional engagements to: (1) build mutual understanding and trust as the foundation for partnership, and to enhance the World Bank Groups’ advice and support to client countries; (2) ensure that Indigenous Peoples’ unique knowledge and perspectives are part of global policy dialogue and World Bank analytics; and (3) engage in co-design processes of critical global and national initiatives.
Building on this analytical work, dialogue, and practical experience, the World Bank provides technical assistance to governments and Indigenous Peoples to enhance country-level policies, dialogue, and investments with Indigenous Peoples. Examples include the 2024 World Bank–Indigenous Peoples regional dialogues—held across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific—with over 150 Indigenous participants from more than 50 countries, as well as country-level support in Colombia, Peru, Kenya, Brazil, the Philippines, Panama, and many others. In Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic, and the Republic of Congo, the World Bank is supporting technical assistance and analytics to deepen understanding of the territories traditionally occupied by Indigenous Peoples and assess forest conservation dynamics in these areas.
At the request of client governments, the World Bank also supports investment and policy lending to advance Indigenous Peoples’ development and policy priorities. This is achieved through the integration of Indigenous Peoples’ development priorities into the design of investment projects that can range from stand-alone projects such as the National Indigenous Peoples Development Plan Project in Panama, or through tailored components and geographical targeting of activities, as is the case with the Tripura Rural Economic Growth and Service Delivery Project in India.
In World Bank investment project financing, ESS7 on Indigenous Peoples/Sub-Saharan African Historically Underserved Traditional Local Communities contributes to overall development by ensuring that projects across sectors where Indigenous Peoples are present, include specific actions to enhance opportunities for Indigenous Peoples to participate in, and benefit from, the investments financed by the World Bank in ways that respect their collective rights, promote their aspirations, and do not threaten or impact their unique cultural identities and ways of life.
The World Bank has also gained experience with direct financing for Indigenous Peoples through three multi-donor trust funds. This has allowed the World Bank to support innovations with Indigenous Peoples that directly inform national policies and systems to enhance their participation in development. These mechanisms include: the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Capacity Building Program (FCPF), which provided $9.9 million in regional grants to Indigenous Peoples and local communities' organizations between 2008 and 2022; the Dedicated Grant Mechanism (DGM), launched in 2010, which has supported $80 million across 12 country-level projects, with a new phase of DGM projects, managed by the Climate Investment Fund (CIF), under preparation; and Enhancing Access to Benefits while Lowering Emissions (EnABLE), initiated in 2020, which provides $3-4 million grants to support inclusion of Indigenous Peoples, women, and others in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s Emissions Reduction Programs.
PROGRAMS & PROJECTS ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Direct Financing Mechanisms for Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous Peoples play a central role in protecting forests, sustaining biodiversity, and driving climate solutions. To strengthen their leadership and ensure they directly benefit from climate finance, the World Bank has developed three direct financing mechanisms. These initiatives support Indigenous Peoples to participate meaningfully in nature and climate finance, Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) programs, and in shaping decisions that affect their lands, natural resources and livelihoods.
Supporting Country-Level Projects and Initiatives on Indigenous Priorities
The World Bank finances and supports projects that promote the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in development investments, including improved access to basic services and infrastructure, climate adaptation, and resilient livelihoods.
World Bank direct dialogue with Indigenous Peoples
Global Dialogues
At the global level, the World Bank engages on an ongoing basis with Indigenous leaders at high-level events and in bilateral meetings to deepen understanding of Indigenous priorities while also sharing information on the World Bank’s work and lessons from engagements in other regions. For example, in February 2025, four Indigenous leaders shared their unique perspectives with 1,800 World Bank staff worldwide. These leaders wove their personal stories into critical messages on sustainable development, highlighting key lessons for both the World Bank and the global community and reinforcing how spirituality, traditional knowledge, and cultural practices are not only central to Indigenous resilience, but also to protecting the one-third of global ecosystems that Indigenous communities currently own or manage.
Regional Dialogues
At the regional level, the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) jointly held four dialogues in 2024 Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. More than 150 Indigenous thought leaders from over 50 countries participated, using the platform to share priorities, challenges, and ideas for stronger collaboration at the country level.
The World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean team maintains ongoing dialogue and strategic collaboration with the Indigenous Forum of Abya Yala (FIAY) and the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC) to improve the application of ESS7 and ensure meaningful inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in World Bank policy discussions and investments across the region. Specific results include: technical assistance to governments and World Bank country teams on Indigenous Peoples policies and issues; organizational strengthening for Indigenous organizations; and analytical work, including a flagship regional report, Indigenous Latin America in the Twenty-First Century.
Country-Level Dialogues
In Panama, the World Bank is actively engaging with Indigenous Peoples through the National Council of Indigenous Peoples (CONDIPI). This collaboration is part of the World Bank’s National Indigenous Peoples Development Plan Project, which strengthens institutional and governance capacities among both the Government of Panama and Indigenous authorities. These efforts are designed to ensure that Indigenous Peoples are actively involved in the decision-making processes that affect their development and well-being.
In Colombia, the Mesa Permanente de Concertación Indígena (MPC) and the World Bank initiated a structured ongoing dialogue in 2024. Since then, the World Bank has been proactively engaging with the MPC to jointly develop a capacity-building agenda focused on Indigenous economies, climate resilience, and financial inclusion. This collaboration also includes the co-creation of innovative financing tools, and the promotion of Indigenous-led enterprises and jobs.
In Kenya, the World Bank has supported the government and Indigenous Peoples to jointly develop a national policy and institutional framework to guide the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples, or marginalized and vulnerable groups, in national development processes. The Policy was approved on December 18, 2025, and follow-up work to prepare a bill for congressional approval is ongoing.
RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS
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MORE ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
- feature story
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OUR PARTNERS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Global & Regional Indigenous Networks & National Implementing Partners
- Indigenous Forum of Abya Yala (FIAY)
- Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC)
- Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP)
- Mainyoito Pastoralists Integrated Development Organization (MPIDO)
- Network of Indigenous and Local Populations for the Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa (RAPALEAC)
- Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education (Tebtebba)
- Asociación Sotz’il
- Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities
- Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC)
Global & Regional Donor & Development Partners
- United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
- Path to Scale
- InterAgency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues
- International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
- Global Environmental Facility (GEF)
- Green Climate Fund
- International Land Coalition (ILC)
- Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA)
Trust Funds
Social Development
Social Development focuses on the need to “put people first” in development processes. It promotes social inclusion of the poor and vulnerable by empowering people, building cohesive and resilient societies, and making institutions accessible and accountable to citizens.