IWGIA's activities in Malaysia
 
IWGIA's oldest partner in Malaysia is the indigenous organisation, PACOS Trust. Support to PACOS' programs started in 1999 with support to a Community Organizing Training Program, which is aimed at training community representatives who, in turn, will ensure more effective community participation and implementation of action plans in all matters important to indigenous communities in Sabah. In 2005, a number of partner organisations in Asia with long experience in community organising and leadership training, including PACOS, decided to embark on a regional indigenous community organizers' and leaders' training program. The idea is to use existing knowledge and experience in community organizers' and leaders' training to help indigenous organisations in other countries start similar programs. A one-year pilot phase of the program was commenced in Cambodia, the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh and Mindanao in the Philippines. The next phase will launch the program in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and, possibly, India.
 
Since 2001 IWGIA has also supported PACOS' Land Campaign Project, the aim of which is to assert the ownership and use rights of indigenous communities in Sabah over customary land through a systematic campaign.
 
From 2002 to 2004, IWGIA supported a project aimed at strengthening the knowledge of indigenous peoples' participation in local government in Malaysia and the Philippines and developing strategies to obtain a higher degree of participation in the future. The project resulted in the publication "Indigenous Peoples and Local Government: Experiences from Malaysia and the Philippines", published by the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), PACOS Trust, Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) & Anthrowatch 2005.