Poverty and Exclusion among

Indigenous Peoples

What is the Global Evidence?

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Overview

• Indigenous Peoples are significantly over-represented amongst the global poor

•That gap is, for the most part, not closing

•Why? Where are the key failures/opportunities?

• Implications for policy, data collection and research going forward

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Indigenous Peoples & Poverty

Indigenous Peoples – Some Estimates

• 250-350 million indigenous peoples worldwide (5% of global population)

• Over-represented among the world’s poor: 10% of global poor

• …and about one-third of all rural poor.

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Who is Indigenous? v. 1

Photo: Raoni Metuktire, Kaye, Kadjor and Panara, leaders of the indigenous Kayapo tribe, Mato Grosso, Brazil. [Wikipedia]

“The name Raoni is associated with the mystery, and the power of the Kayapo people [of Brazil]. This charismatic leader has been crusading for four decades to save his homeland, the Amazon forest”. [Raoni.com]

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Who is Indigenous? v. 2

http://www.aworldatschool.org/news/entry/UpForSchool-campaign-helps-child-rag-pickers-in-India-2359

“Indian rag picking [Scheduled Tribe] children in the Delhi slum where they live and work”. UP for School Campaign. October 14, 2015.

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Who is Indigenous? v. 3

“She's a capable netballer, a volunteer fire fighter with a weakness for mango ice-cream, a reluctant fisher-woman who hates throwing a line but loves eating the catch. She laughs easily, watches Grey's Anatomy and reads Women's Health. ”

“Vinka Barunga is …the first Aboriginal doctor in her community.”

Living Black, June 25, 2015

http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/living-black/article/2015/05/04/home-grown-derby-girl-be-towns-first-aboriginal-doctor

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“In many cases, there seems to be an odd calculus at work whereby the less clothes one wears (or the more clothes one wears that are distinctly ethnic), the more one’s indigeneity is unassailable.”Jerome Levy and Biorn Maybury-Lewis, “Becoming Indigenous”. In Hall, G. and H. Patrinos, 2014. Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 3, p. 100.

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Indigenous Identity is…

• Muddied by external labels and stereotypes

• Politically sensitive and contentious

• Fluid and changing based on alternative definitions, but also time and place

• Denoted using different terms across regions

Tough to pin down!

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Our Study

• Makes no attempt to wade into these debates; • Following the U.N. and the World Bank does not put forth a

rule on what constitutes ‘indigenous’.• Recognizes any peoples whom any government or

institution (including self-identified) describe as satisfying any definition of being indigenous.• Selects countries of study based on availability of

representative survey data and estimated size of indigenous population (exception: Africa). • Uses self-identification as a definition wherever possible.

Following this strategy, our results cover an estimated 80 percent of the global indigenous population.

Indigenous Peoples and Poverty: Global Results and Trends

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Global Distribution of Indigenous Peoples

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Global Distribution of Indigenous Poor

Source: Hall, G. and H. Patrinos, 2014. Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development. Cambridge University Press.

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Finding 1. Confirmed: Indigenous peoples are poorer, (everywhere we looked)

Headcount poverty rate (% of population that is poor), Indigenous vs. Non-Indigenous

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Finding 2. Poverty typically falls more slowly for Indigenous populations

Source: Hall, G. and H. Patrinos, 2014. Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development. Cambridge University Press.

Average Annual Percent Change in Poverty Rate, Indigenous vs. Non-Indigenous

Why?

1. Early Child Development Gap

2. Discrimination

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Why Early Child Development?

“A large body of evidence now ties experiences in early childhood with health throughout life. Strong evidence also demonstrates it is possible to turn vicious cycles into paths to health, by intervening early.”

– Robert Woods Johnson Foundation

Photo: Early Childhood Matters Magazine.

Source: Overcoming Obstacles to Health: Report From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Commission to Build a Healthier America. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2008.

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The indigenous child development gap: what do we know?

•It opens early•It combines with other identities to compound disadvantage•It is not uniform: some groups do better than others

‘Indigenous peoples suffer from poorer health, are more likely to experience disability and reduced quality of life

and ultimately die younger than their non-indigenous counterparts’.

UN report on State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (2009)

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Early child development and poverty determinants are highly linked

• Low birth weight is linked to lower average scores on tests of intellectual and social development (Breslau et al, 1994; Brooks-Gunn et al, 1996; Currie and Hyson, 1999)

• Children with chronic health conditions have lower educational attainment, wages and employment probabilities as adults (1958 British birth cohort study – Case, Fertig and Paxon, 2005)

• Health treatments soon after birth raise school outcomes later -- observed heterogeneity in education outcomes is influenced by heterogeneity in heath care, beginning at birth (Bharadwaj, Loken and Nielson, 2012)

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Example 1: Malnutrition is higher among indigenous children

Guatemala India El Salvador Peru (Quechua)

010203040506070

Childhood stunting rates (height-for-age), for children under age 5

National AverageIndigenous

Source: Hall and Patrinos (2006), PAHO (2002), Das, et al. “India: The Scheduled Tribes”. In Hall and Patrinos, 2012. Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development. Cambridge University Press.

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Example 2: Indigenous children under age 5 are at greater risk of dying

Amazonas (Venezuela)

Ratnakiri (Cambodia)

Bolivia Tsumkwe (Namibia)

India0

20406080

100120140160180200

Infant/child mortality per 1,000 births

National averageIndigenous

UN report on State of the World’s Indigenous People (2009), Statistical Profile of Scheduled Tribes in India (2010), An Overview of Current Knowledge of the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health (2007)

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The double-disadvantage

World Bank. 2013. Inclusion Matters, the Foundation for Shared Prosperity. p. 75. Figure shows the probability of completing secondary school relative to a Spanish speaking man, for those age 25 years or older.

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Some indigenous groups suffer worse child development gaps than others

In Latin America, Infant Mortality rates vary significantly across groups, and in some cases are over twice the national average

Source: 2000 Census rounds, various countries. Centro Latinoamericano y Caribeno de Demografia (CELADE) – Division de Poblacion, CEPAL .

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Discrimination: new & emerging evidence

A recent study in Mexico by the National Council for Prevention of Discrimination found that:

• 20% of members belonging to an ‘ethnic group’ state that discrimination by society is the main problem they face

•27% report they do not have equal opportunity for receiving quality healthcare

•39% report they have unequal opportunities in getting a job

•33% say they do not receive the same support from the government as non-ethnic groups

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Discrimination and “peer effects’: new evidence from India

•Discrimination influences the ability to acquire human capital, via performance and ‘ability’: In India, low- and high-caste boys perform equally well on a maze; but once caste is revealed the relative performance of low caste boys deteriorates (Hoff and Pandey, 2014)

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Concluding Remarks• As we set zero extreme poverty as a target, two key

questions: - who remains among the poorest of the poor? - will ‘more of the same’ policies bring us successfully to zero?

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Source: Radelet, Steven. 2015. The Great Surge. Figure 2.2, p. 30.

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Concluding Remarks (2)

• Indigenous Peoples and other excluded groups exhibit failures in development policy that are often hidden in averages.

• To address this problem, two key areas for work:

• How we track global progress (extreme poverty, MDGs).

• How we evaluate specific interventions (evaluations not often designed to look beyond averages to show impacts among key sub-populations)

• Specifically, policy research in two priority areas: early child development and discrimination.