Indigenous peoples voice: idea for a participatory strategy with focus on poverty

Abstract

Considering that it is through a process of participation that indigenous peoples may influence the guarantee and the implementation of their rights, and that participation may give the poverty issue a more central role within the indigenous cause, this work wants to propose a strategy to improve the indigenous participatory process with a focus on poverty. Firstly, the research has underlined three levels of participation – local, national and international – from where the analysis has started. Later, in order to develop an appropriate strategy for each level, there was the need for a better understanding of which are the main problems affecting indigenous participation. Therefore, adopting a sociological approach and considering the importance of the direct information, a questionnaire has been sent to some indigenous representatives working in Central and South America. In addition, indigenous persons and experts have been interviewed to get their first-hand experience about difficulties of greater concern. After this first analysis of the phenomenon, the research has moved towards a purpositive perspective and has tried to develop suggestions to improve participation and overcome the problems previously highlighted. The result consists of a number of original proposals that want to be not only ways to tackle the participation matter but also points for reflection in the picture of the ongoing complications indigenous peoples still have to face for being participative at every level.