id21 viewpoints

Indigenous peoples and ICTs

Roger Harris is an independent consultant working for the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for poverty reduction and rural development in Asia. He considers the contribution ICTs can make to the development of indigenous peoples and approaches to improve their access to ICTs.

There are an estimated 300 million indigenous people in the world, with around 70 percent of them living in Asia. They represent around 5 percent of the world's population and account for almost 15 percent of the world's poor. They suffer from a diverse range of other problems associated with their status, their interaction with other cultural groups and with changes in their inhabited environment.

Generally, indigenous peoples are so-called because they were living, or are the descendents of those living, in a country or geographical region before settlers from different cultures or ethnic origins arrived and became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means. The term indigenous is also generally accepted to include the ethnic minorities and tribal groups of Asia and Africa who have been subjected to internal colonialism by non-tribal dominant groups within state structures, both in the past and at present.

The concerns of indigenous people include cultural and linguistic preservation; land rights; ownership and exploitation of natural resources; political determination and autonomy; environmental degradation and incursion; ill health; substandard education; and discrimination.

The United Nations General Assembly recently adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It acknowledges that indigenous peoples have suffered from historic injustices as a result of colonisation and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, and that this has prevented them from exercising their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests.

Although generally welcomed by indigenous groups around the world, the UNDRIP falls short in at least one respect. It makes no mention of any rights of access to information, or to the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). There is growing interest in the use of computers, the internet, mobile phones and a range of other devices for development. There is also mounting evidence for their use as tools for poverty reduction and development in the areas of enterprise development, agriculture, health, education and other public services. However, they receive no mention in the Declaration.

This is unfortunate for three important reasons:

• Many of the benefits of ICTs, such as the death of distance and enabling freedom of expression, are the potential solutions that indigenous peoples seek as answers to their problems.
• There are good examples of how this is already working in developed nations such as Australia and Canada, where aboriginal-operated media and internet networks demonstrate the benefits that indigenous-owned ICTs bring to disadvantaged communities.
• Indigenous peoples are least likely to access development benefits, as they are often found in the more remote locations that are starved of communications and information; they therefore have the most to gain, dollar-for-dollar, from investments in infrastructure improvements.

With these factors in mind, the e-Bario Knowledge Fair was recently organised to highlight the contributions that ICTs can make to indigenous development. This was a multi-disciplinary conference held in the remote village of Bario, in the highlands of Sarawak, one of the states of East Malaysia on the island of Borneo and home to the indigenous Kelabit people. It brought together more than a hundred participants from 15 countries.

E-Bario is a multi award winning telecentre that continues to bring tangible development benefits to this indigenous community. Academic and practitioner presentations were mixed together with those from the residents and from the wider Kelabit community in a grassroots encounter that allowed everyone to share their experiences, knowledge and cultures. The Knowledge Fair also hosted a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Workshop on E-Inclusion and Media for Indigenous Peoples, which identified effective mechanisms for accelerating the pace towards e-inclusion for the world's indigenous peoples.

Arising from the joint proceedings, the delegates formulated the e-Bario Vision for Indigenous Peoples, the link to which is shown below. Based on this, a further programme for Asia's indigenous peoples is being implemented by UNDP. The outcomes should draw attention to the opportunities that ICTs offer for improving the development prospects of indigenous peoples so that they can find their rightful place in the realisation of the UN Declaration.

Roger Harris

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Further Information
Roger Harris
http://rogharris.org/
harris38@netvigator.com

Useful links
e-Bario Knowledge Fair and link to the E-Bario Vision for Indigenous Peoples and ICTs

UNDP Workshop on E-Inclusion and Media

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (PDF)

June 2008

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