Fostering Participatory Consultations with Indigenous Communities

In its operations, ADB pays great attention to public consultation and information dissemination. Its Safeguards Policy Statement, consisting of three safeguards on environment, involuntary resettlement, and Indigenous Peoples, treats meaningful consultation with the project-affected people with utmost importance. The recently approved Environment and Social Framework has a standalone standard on Stakeholders Engagement and Information Disclosure (Environment and Social Standard 10).

Meaningful consultation has been an integral part of all the three safeguards in the Safeguards Policy Statement and continues to be so in the Environment and Social Framework. An important aspect of meaningful consultation is that it recognizes and caters to the special requirements of disadvantaged and vulnerable people or groups, including culturally appropriate engagement with Indigenous Peoples.

More than six decades ago, media theorist Marshall McLuhan gave the concept that “medium is the message.” It primarily referred to the emergence of new technologies in media that was rapidly altering communication processes at that time. The concept remains relevant today, with its basic premise that the medium, through which a message is communicated, plays a vital role in the way the message is perceived and interpreted by its audience. Medium is neither neutral, nor it is a mere carrier for the message or the content. It develops a synergetic relationship with the intended audience and influences the way audience perceives and interprets the message. Medium, therefore, is an integral and important part of the communication process as it gets embedded with the message. McLuhan argues that a message’s impact and meaning are shaped by the medium through which it is delivered. The delivery process creates a unique environment and refers to a medium’s characteristics, its format, structure, and method of delivery. In an effective communication process, both the message and the medium or the way the message is delivered are equally important.

Echoing McLuhan’s concept, “meaningful consultation” underlines the importance of “medium” or the delivery process in conducting stakeholder consultation. Meaningful consultation is a bundle of processes and calls for creating a conducive and supportive medium or environment. This is especially important when engaging with project-affected people and vulnerable groups, such as women and children, and Indigenous Peoples. It begins early in a project preparation stage and is iterative. It provides timely information to stakeholders in an understandable and easily accessible way. Consultation is preferably conducted in the language of the communities and includes culturally appropriate participatory consultation methods.

To encourage project-affected persons or groups to participate, consultation is conducted in an atmosphere free of intimidation and coercion and without threat of reprisal. It needs to be gender-inclusive and tailored to the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Further, to ensure that the consultation is a two-way, dialogical process, it requires that relevant views of project-affected people are incorporated in the project’s design and implementation. These various processes of meaningful consultation help build a medium that allows the affected people to experience the consultation process as participatory, empowering, and free of coercion and intimidation.

Some recent consultations conducted with Indigenous Peoples, as described below, demonstrate the relevance of the medium or the environment. These consultations elucidated some essential elements—such as familiarity, sense of place, belonging and freedom, absence of intimidation, community connectedness, and solidarity—that are helpful in developing a favorable medium for consultations with the Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group (IPAG)

To facilitate the effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and to seek their viewpoints and feedback on updating ADB’s 2009 Safeguard Policy Statement, two Indigenous Peoples Advisory Groups—one for Asia and the other for the Pacific region—were established. Comprised of representatives from Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, both groups have been providing support and guidance on various issues related to Indigenous Peoples rights, including the newly introduced requirement of obtaining free, prior, and informed consent from Indigenous Peoples affected by ADB-financed projects.

In the process of setting up an advisory group for the Pacific region, a daylong meeting was held in a hotel in Nadi, Fiji in 2024. Representatives from Indigenous Peoples’ organizations appreciated the opportunity to share their thoughts and to voice their concerns. One representative expressed this sentiment: “We’ve not been able to have this kind of consultation and the opportunity to sit, you know, at the table like this, and give our thoughts, or maybe come together as a family, to be able to voice our concerns.” The representative decried one-way consultative processes that tell them, “This is what your problem is. And this is how we’re here to fix your problem. You take it, or you don’t take it. That’s not on us. It’s on you and you take it up with your government if you have any problem with it.” Such attitudes not only hinder a useful dialogue with the indigenous communities but fail to seek the right information and feedback. Under this approach, feedback from Indigenous Peoples is less than forthcoming and often not what they actually wish to express. Another participant noted that during such a consultation process, Indigenous Peoples’ attitude is: “We want you to hear what you wish to hear, not what we want to tell you. This is to make you happy, you know, and just to say, okay, great.” Thus, the consultation process loses its relevance and its outcome is half-truth or at times barely any truth.

The Indigenous Peoples representatives emphasized the need to understand the specific contexts of the indigenous communities. A representative explained, “The Pacific way of doing things is, we invite all to the table to eat and to share knowledge. That's how we learn; that’s how we grow. And we want them to be in a space where they feel like they can belong to.” Representatives suggested that consultation meetings in the Pacific be held in open spaces, by the beach, where the participants feel free and have a sense of place and belonging, rather than in formal meeting rooms of hotels or government buildings.

The Advisory Group members clearly stressed the need for a familiar and familial environment or medium for conducting effective consultations.

Indigenous Peoples' Village Community Consultation in Nepal

A similar insight came from a consultation meeting with the potentially project-affected Indigenous Peoples in Nepal. The venue for consultation was an open space under the canopy of two big trees. The consultation was attended by different sections of the village community including women, youth, and older persons. Branches of the two trees under which the consultation was held have conjoined over the years and for the villagers, this symbolizes solidarity. Villagers pointed out that like the two trees, people can come together, meet, and discuss their differences and act as a cohesive social unit. They reasoned that if the two trees can merge and become one, why can’t they as people come together and deal collectively with issues that concern them? The overall setting for consultation reinforced the sense of place, community solidarity, and cohesiveness, allowing participants to freely express their project-related concerns and expectations.

These examples show that the right medium for consultation could be developed when the consultation process is informed by the cultural nuances of project-affected indigenous communities. This requires getting familiar with and being guided by the socio-cultural practices and requirements of a particular indigenous community, and viewing these requirements from an insider’s perspective.

Utilizing the right medium or culturally appropriate environment for a consultation process is essential when engaging with Indigenous Peoples, women, and other disadvantaged groups, who often find it difficult to put forward their viewpoints in official, formal gatherings. Various systemic barriers—such as low levels of literacy, lower socio-economic status, discrimination, and historical disadvantages—may hinder their participation and discourage them from putting forward their views and opinions. Intimidation, coercion, and potential retributions are other elements that need to be seriously addressed.

While conducting consultations, it is important to create an environment where vulnerable stakeholders do not feel intimidated but feel empowered to participate freely and in an informed way. The concept of “meaningful consultation” provides the requisite tools and processes. Creating a conducive medium will ensure inclusiveness and participation, help enhance mutual understanding between stakeholders, and contribute to building the trust and acceptance of the affected indigenous communities for project-related activities. All we need is to keep in mind is, “Medium is the Message.”

Asian Development Bank. Environmental and Social Framework.

ADB. 2024. ADB Unveils New Framework to Enhance Social and Environmental Protections for Projects. News Release. 22 November.

ADB. 2023. Environmental and Social Standard 7: Indigenous peoples.