Indigenous peoples will present demands and proposals regarding their vulnerability to the World Bank

The Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), which brings together nine countries in the region, will develop a public event called “Improvements for the implementation of social and environmental safeguards of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) from the indigenous proposal ”.

“The current political and economic situation in the countries that make up the Amazon basin represent a threat to indigenous peoples. The various extractive activities implemented by governments that consider the Amazon as an inexhaustible source of natural resources, do not value or respect our ancestral knowledge and knowledge and its importance in the conservation of forests and territories, ”says José Gregorio Díaz Mirabal, coordinator General of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA).

In this context, and so that the States that have the support of the World Bank do not relax regulations that affect not only the environment, but also the rights of indigenous peoples under the pretext of economic reactivation due to the pandemic, the event will be held. which will be part of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.

Each year, these meetings bring together authorities from central banks, ministers of Finance and Development, as well as executives, who debate the world economic outlook. It also brings together civil society organizations worldwide, which can present evidence on the current situation in relation to different issues such as the climate, socio-environmental and financial crisis; among other important issues, in relation to financial group loans.

Indigenous organizations will talk about the situation in the Amazon Basin

On this occasion, COICA, CIDOB, the civil association DAR and the Regional Coalition for Transparency and Participation will have a space in this important event, where participants will expose the need for International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to improve their socio-environmental safeguards , including demands from indigenous peoples such as consultation protocols and the Escazú Agreement, as did the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Likewise, in the face of the approval of loans from the IFIs due to COVID-19, the implementation of an urgent policy is sought in the vaccination processes of States such as Peru, Brazil, Bolivia and Ecuador, so that the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin, in coordination with its representative organizations.

Civil society organizations can access the Spring Meetings by registering at the event link, until March 22.