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Project work in Africa
Aims and objectives
IWGIA's work towards empowering indigenous peoples in Africa is done at two levels:
One level is:
the support to lobby for promotion and protection of the human rights of indigenous peoples in Africa at an African wide regional level. This lobby work is concretely carried out towards the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights.
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 Maasai, Kenya
Photo: Jenneke Arens |
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The other level is:
project support to indigenous organizations at local level.
These two main areas of support have different character, but it is being aimed to integrate them in order to achieve synergetic effects.
Focus on land rights, human rights and self-organization and empowerment
The aim of the project work in Africa is reflecting the overall aims of IWGIA's project work. In the Africa project work the focus is on:
recognition of land rights for indigenous peoples
protection and promotion of the human rights of indigenous peoples
self-organization and empowerment
IWGIA’s current project involvement is mainly concentrated in: However, IWGIA has also developed support for indigenous peoples and their organizations in - Uganda, Rwanda & the Democratic Republic of Congo
Land rights
Dispossession of traditional lands and territories is one of the major problems of indigenous peoples in Africa. Dominating development paradigms in Africa perceive the modes of production of indigenous peoples - such as pastoralism and hunting/gathering - as primitive, non-productive and not in line with the modernization aspirations of present day African states. Therefore many development policies are either directly or indirectly geared towards weakening/eradicating the modes of production of indigenous peoples.
In the name of national economic development, various policies are being put in place, which dispossess indigenous peoples of their lands and natural resources and which threaten to undermine their cultures and survival as distinct peoples. Activities that have been undertaken in the name of national development and that have at the same time undermined the land bases and livelihoods of indigenous peoples include establishment of national parks and game reserves, massive logging of forests, large infrastructure projects such as dam and pipeline constructions, mineral exploration, commercial hunting schemes, large scale agricultural projects etc.
The land base of indigenous peoples in Africa is also rapidly being threatened by land titling policies promoting individual land ownership, and by pressure from farming communities.
IWGIA supports the work carried out by local indigenous organizations to prevent further land loss and to try to re-claim land, which has been taken illegally. The activities supported have included community awareness-raising and mobilization on land rights issues, lobby activities towards decision makers at national level aimed at legislative and constitutional reforms, litigation and court cases, mapping and titling in order to get legal titles to land on a communal basis, public information etc.
Human rights
Indigenous peoples in Africa are suffering from marginalization, discrimination and human rights abuses. Only few African states recognize and protect the basic collective rights of indigenous peoples in their constitutions or national legislation. Indigenous peoples suffer from weak political representation and from discrimination and negative stereotyping from mainstream society.
IWGIA supports activities aimed at enhancing the legal and constitutional rights of indigenous peoples, creating community awareness among indigenous peoples on human rights, improving public understanding of the problems and needs of indigenous peoples etc.
Indigenous women are in many cases facing particular problems as both belonging to marginalized groups and being subjected to culturally based forms of discrimination as women. Discrimination for instance relate to leadership positions, decision-making power, issues of land rights, rights and access to education, violence against women etc. IWGIA seeks to address this in the project support – both as an integrated component in land rights and human rights projects and in specific projects such as training seminars for women.
Self-organization and empowerment
A major problem among indigenous peoples in Africa is that they still suffer from a low level of self-organization and from lack of capacity to address the many serious, politically sensitive and complex problems they are facing. Capacity building and empowerment needs to be done both at local, national and regional levels. IWGIA focuses presently on the local level by supporting capacity building of a number of local indigenous organizations.
Download the whole Africa Strategy (PDF)
Background for IWGIA's projects in Africa
IWGIA has supported project work in Africa since the middle of the 1990's, the first project involvement being support for the first people of the Kalahari, a San organization working for the recognition of the land rights/human rights of the San in Botswana. IWGIA's project support has since then developed to also include support for indigenous peoples and their organizations in: - Kenya
- Tanzania
- Rwanda
- the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Compared to other regions such as Latin America and Asia, IWGIA's project work in Africa is still comparatively limited.
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