27 August 2008: This toolkit is aimed at UN Country Teams
and other development agents, to provide guidance on how to engage indigenous
peoples and include their perspectives in development processes.

The toolkit
was prepared by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), UN
Division for Social Policy and Development, UN Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, in cooperation with the International Labor Organization, UN
Children’s Fund, UN Development Programme, UN Population Fund and Secretariat
of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The toolkit contains recommendations
on how to make the Millennium Development Goals relevant to indigenous peoples,
in particular the goal of ensuring environmental sustainability. In this
regard, the toolkit notes that indigenous communities face a number of
environmental challenges, including climate change, and suggests: balancing
some conservation projects by respecting the right of indigenous peoples to
live in their traditional territories; and protecting traditional knowledge and
promoting benefit-sharing agreements. [The
Toolkit]