Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network

Bank’s supervision team must include appropriate expertise
and skills in understanding how Indigenous Peoples view
development and how development efforts may affect them.
Knowledge of the affected communities, local language
competency, and skills in participatory assessment techniques
should be valued.
Monitoring of measures for Indigenous Peoples should
be integrated into the project’s overall monitoring and evaluation
system, but often with specific indicators and particular
monitoring and evaluation activities. Monitoring
requirements vary for different types of projects depending
on their scope, interventions, the characteristics of the
affected Indigenous Peoples, and the project’s benefits to,
and impacts on, them. For some simple projects with few
Indigenous Peoples, and where project activities are primarily
beneficial, the elements of the monitoring and evaluation
system concerning Indigenous Peoples may be limited to
disaggregating data by ethnicity or social groups. For projects
with significant impacts on indigenous communities,
an elaborate monitoring and evaluation system conducted
by an independent entity focusing on measures for Indigenous
Peoples may be needed.
Forest-based projects should, in most cases, plan to pay
significant attention to Indigenous Peoples’ issues during
project preparation because of the particular vulnerabilities,
views, and circumstances of Indigenous Peoples in forest
areas. It is important to assess whether assumptions for
project success are correct, whether there are any unintended
impacts on affected Indigenous Peoples, and
whether they are able to participate in project benefits or
whether exclusion or other factors inhibit their participation.
Finally, it is important to assess community satisfaction
and whether the project continues to receive broad
community support.
Qualitative and participatory data collection methods to
monitor and evaluate project impacts on Indigenous Peoples
are useful. Such methods may include workshops, focus
group discussions, informal interviews, mapping exercises,
and other participatory assessment tools. Special studies
assessing specific implementation issues concerning Indigenous
Peoples through qualitative methods and field work
may also be useful. Participatory monitoring and evaluation
differs from more conventional approaches by engaging
beneficiaries actively in assessing the progress and achievements
of the project; sharing control over the content, the
process, and the results of the activity; and identifying corrective
actions. When the people who are affected most by a
project participate in its monitoring and evaluation, the
project receives valuable input for improvements; accountability
and transparency may be improved; acceptance is
likely to be heightened; and beneficiaries’ participation in,
and ownership of, implementation is likely to be enhanced.
It may also foster learning at the local level and contribute
to organizational strengthening and empowerment of local
communities.
A key element of World Bank supervision is assessing
whether the Indigenous Peoples’ instrument is carried out
as agreed. Implementation of the instrument is a critical
dimension in decisions on project performance ratings. The
project team also assesses implementation of the borrower’s
monitoring and evaluation system and ascertains the extent
to which monitoring information is used to strengthen
project implementation and make needed adjustments—
and whether it is able to include Indigenous Peoples’ perceptions,
concerns, and evaluations in the project feedback
system. Key questions to consider during supervision missions
include the following:
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Are the Indigenous Peoples’ instrument and legal
covenants being implemented? If not, what are the constraints?
What should be done to rectify this? Is there a
need to change the agreed on activities or project design
more generally?
Are the affected Indigenous Peoples participating in
project implementation? If not, what should be done to
enhance their participation?
How are Indigenous Peoples benefiting from project
activities? How are their socioeconomic circumstances
changing?
What project impacts are there on Indigenous Peoples?
Are there any unanticipated impacts (given their characteristics
and socioeconomic circumstances, unanticipated
impacts are more likely for Indigenous Peoples
than for other population groups)? Are impacts being
avoided or mitigated or should new or additional mitigation
measures be introduced?
What are the risks concerning the affected Indigenous
Peoples? Have those risks changed since project preparation
or have new risks surfaced? How should they be
addressed or mitigated?
What are Indigenous Peoples’ perceptions about the
project, its benefits, and its impacts? Do the respective
communities continue to provide their broad support to
project activities? If not, how can this be changed?
Does the project include new locations? Have they been
screened for Indigenous Peoples?
Is the capacity of the implementing agency and other
involved stakeholders increasing with project implemen-
CHAPTER 12: APPLYING OP 4.10 ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 355