Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Green Climate Fund, the entity established by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) to channel funds for climate change mitigation and adaption, is now in the process of finalizing its Indigenous Peoples Policy and the GCF Secretariat has just made a Call for Public Inputs to the Indigenous Peoples’ Policy.

This offers an unprecedented opportunity for indigenous peoples to engage in order to ensure that the Fund has a high-level policy based on international standards and obligations for indigenous peoples’ rights, such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC); while acknowledging the positive role of Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge and livelihood systems to adaptation and mitigation, and ensuring our full and effective participation in GCF activities at all levels. Therefore the Indigenous Peoples Policy will be a crucial instrument to guide the implementation of the UNFCCC Agreements, including the Paris Agreement. 

The current draft made available for consultations among indigenous peoples’ organizations captures the various and repeated calls for an IP Policy made by indigenous peoples throughout these years, and key elements contained in various submissions made to the GCF on matters that are relevant to Indigenous Peoples. These range from REDD+, the Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) to the actual Indigenous Peoples Policy, all of which have been endorsed by a relevant number of IPOs and support groups all over the regions. 

We are hopeful that those that have signed on these submissions would actively collaborate in reaching out to their own constituencies, thereby ensuring a wide dissemination and consultation on this key policy. And that other indigenous peoples’ organizations engage in the consultation as well. 

The elaboration of the Indigenous Peoples Policy by the GCF is also the result of ongoing dialogues and exchange between the Indigenous Peoples Advocacy Team, the GCF, and with CSOs engaged wih the GCF. The IP Advocacy Team on the GCF is composed of the following indigenous organizations from different regions:  Centro para la Autonomía y Desarollo de los Pueblos Indígenas/CADPI, Nicaragua; Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners/ILEPA, Kenya; Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities/NEFIN; Tebtebba; with the assistance of team consultant Francesco Martone and support NGOs such as IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs) and FPP (Forest Peoples Programme). 

The IP Advocacy Team has been participating in the various meetings of the GCF Board since 2015, conveying concerns and proposals in line with the above, and actively engaging in and informing advocacy efforts of CSOs in matters that are relevant to indigenous peoples. An important outcome in this matter is that in spite of the fact that Indigenous Peoples are not recognized as active observers by the GCF, Kimaren Ole Riamit of ILEPA has been designated by southern CSOs as Alternate Active Observer for the South and this has given the possibility of making the voice of Indigenous Peoples heard at the highest level within the GCF.

Please find the Call for Public Input here. This includes the inputs requested of the secretariat and the indigenous peoples Policy in the Annex. For easy reference, we copy below the specific inputs requested by the GCF Secretariat:

 Inputs requested

The GCF Secretariat is pleased to invite organizations and all entities involved and interested in climate mitigation and adaptation and indigenous peoples rights and issues to provide inputs to the proposed indigenous peoples policy of the GCF.

In particular, inputs are welcome in relation to the following:
(a) Scope and principles - Adequacy of coverage and the guiding principles of the policy;

 (b)  Requirements - Clarity of the requirements of the policy including impacts avoidance and management, mitigation and development benefits, meaningful consultations, free, prior and informed consent, grievance redress, and broader planning in the context of indigenous peoples;

(c)  Roles and responsibilities and implementation arrangements - The roles and responsibilities of GCF, the entities and other stakeholders, and suggestions to improve the policy’s implementation including proposed arrangements;

(d)  Gaps - Identifying any other areas that may have been missed and proposing ways to fill these gaps including opportunities to enhance policy outcomes and drawing from the experiences in policy delivery from similar institutions;

(e)  Engagement - Identifying scope for further engagement of multi-stakeholders to continuously improve the proposed policy.

How to submit inputs/ submissions?

1.     You can either submit on behalf of your organization or a group of organizations . In the case where the inputs are provided on behalf of an organization, the list of organizations should be included in the official submission of inputs. You can send your submission directly to the GCF secretariat via email as one document with the subject line "Call for public inputs – Indigenous Peoples Policy – Response" to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The official submission should clearly indicate:

Full Name
Title/Position
Organization/Affiliation
Contact details including telephone and e-mail address Organization’s Focal Point (name, surname and position).

For direct submission to the GCF secretariat, the  deadline for submissions is 12 August 2017 at 23:59 Korean Standard Time.

2.     Otherwise, you can also submit your comments/ inputs to the IP policy to Helen Biangalen-Magata of Tebtebba, Philippines at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Eileen Cunningham Mairena of CADPI, Nicaragua at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. on or before July 30, 2017. Both Eileen and Helen will help collate the comments and inputs and submit them as one document to the GCF secretariat before August 12, 2017.

All submissions should indicate whether the inputs are provided on behalf of an organization or a group of organizations

We remain at your disposal for any request for clarification or further explanation on the GCF and the specific process of consultation of the Indigenous Peoples’ Policy.

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Helen Biangalen-Magata

Communications Officer

Tebtebba

(Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education)

1 Roman Ayson Rd., Baguio City 2600, Philippines

Tel: +63 74 4447703  Tel/Fax: +63 74 4439459

Websites: www.tebtebba.org, www.indigenousclimate.org