World Bank report reveals ways to improve Philippine indigenous peoples' welfare

MANILA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Increasing indigenous peoples' access to water and sanitation, education, health services, and economic opportunities while preserving their cultural identities can significantly improve their living standards, said a World Bank report released on Monday.

According to census data, approximately 9.4 million people identified as indigenous live in the Philippines, about 8.7 percent of the population, and many live in geographically disadvantaged areas.

The report stressed the need to enhance the development of these regions through improved connectivity and more ethnicity-disaggregated data.

Indigenous peoples are more likely to feel financially challenged while less likely to access quality education, said the report, adding that those with only primary education often find employment in agriculture or self-employment.

The report also pointed to the importance of more data and speedier processing of legal land titles for indigenous peoples, who share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live or from which they have been displaced.

"Protecting indigenous peoples' land rights is a crucial step in addressing poverty and conflict in the country," said World Bank Senior Social Development Specialist Carlos Perez-Brito.

While Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles, formal recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral domains, have been approved for approximately 20.5 percent of the country's total land area, the report said processing has been slow.

"Overlapping and conflicting land management mandates and scarce resources have held the process back," said the report.