Abstract:

Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is an operational instrument that empowers local and indigenous peoples’ communities, ensuring mutual respect and full and effective participation in decision-making on proposed investment and development programmes that may affect their rights, their access to lands, territories and resources, and their livelihoods. FPIC is an iterative process, solicited through consultations in good faith with the representative institutions endorsed by communities. 1 IFAD is the first international financial institution to adopt FPIC as an operational principle in its policy documents. In IFAD-funded projects and programmes, the borrowing entity or grant recipient is responsible for seeking and obtaining FPIC. IFAD-funded projects and programmes are people-centred and rarely finance large-scale infrastructures.  Given the diversity of situations and contexts, there is no simple or universal way to seek FPIC. As local communities vary greatly in their sociocultural aspects, history, institutions and approaches to development, the processes that they will agree to undertake will differ. Hence, the aim of this how-to-do note is to provide general recommendations that can guide borrowers, recipients and partners in the processes for seeking FPIC in IFAD-financed projects and programmes