Abraham Lotha
New York | May 23
How do indigenous people from the grassroots look at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?
Many indigenous peoples from various parts of the world have come to the UN for the Fifth Session of the Permanent Forum to voice their concerns to the UN body and the various UN Agencies. The theme of this year’s session is to redefine the goals from the perspective of the indigenous peoples. A special session was held on Africa at the Fifth Session of the UNPFII.
For the Masai people from Kenya, however, their concern is not to redefine the goals but to redefine the concepts themselves. They have their own definition of poverty. “The MDGs are irrelevant and abstract because our people have no previous experience with partnership” according to Ben Ole Koissaba of the Maa Civil Society Forum.
“The developed world took a millennium to be what they are now. But the indigenous peoples are being forced to adapt fast” continues Ben. “It is too fast for me. It cannot be like cut-and-paste type. How do I make these goals mine?”
The Masai, instead, call for a different kind of partnership that takes the point of departure from the ground.
So how do the Masai suggest to redefine the Millennium Development Goals? The following is their take on some of the goals:
On Poverty: “Call me poor? How can you call me poor when I have children? The definition of poverty should not be in terms of dollar. Our source of life is the land. We depend on cows and the cows feed off the land. If land is decreased, life-stocks will decrease. Therefore people are less secure. This is the cause of my poverty. MDGs do not recognize pastoralism as a way of life. So I am already deleted from the beginning. The UN Institutions have not recognized who we are.”
On Education: The Masai feel that “the MDG goal for education will not be realized because the lives of pastoralists and hunter gatherers is labor intensive to survive. So [Masai people] have many children that can work and go hunting. Quality education cannot be given in such a situation. So the MDGs need to have a mobile school because our children move.”
On Sustainable Development: “With regard to sustainable development,” the Masai delegation says, “what we call sustainable is not what the UN calls sustainable. The UN talks about conservation. But we contest this. The Masai have been living with lions for ages.
But when the UN talks about conservation, they want to conserve the forests and animals without the people. There is a link between the government and development. Governance is politicized, development is politicized. For tourism, the Masai are exalted, but for all other issues, the Masai are excluded. Development is a right of the people.”
The MDGs as a problem
For the Masai, then, it is not only that the MDGs are seen as problematic that need to be redefined. The MDGs are a problem.
According to the Masai delegation, “the MDGs are seen as another imposition of international agenda. The system criminalizes the people” they say. “Why are pastoralist excluded? How sensitive are data collections to Masai culture? Masai people will not tell you how many children they have or how many cattle they have?”
The core problem of the MDGs from the Masai’s viewpoint, then, is that “there is a problem of conceptual paradigm. The predominant paradigm of the UN is sedentary agriculture, and pastoralism is not taken into consideration.”
