Latin America's Indigenous Peoples

• Author: Gillette Hall and Harry Anthony Patrinos
• Position: Patrinos are Economists in the World Bank's Human Development Department, Latin America and the Caribbean Region

Despite greater political power, indigenous peoples still lag behind

In December 1994, the United Nations proclaimed 1995-2004 the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. In Latin America-where indigenous peoples comprise some 10 percent of the population-the ensuing decade coincided with an upsurge of indigenous movements exercising political influence in new and increasingly powerful ways. In 1994, the Zapatista Rebellion took place in Chiapas, Mexico. In Ecuador, indigenous groups took to the streets five times, leading to negotiations with the government and, ultimately, constitutional change; similar demonstrations in Bolivia led to the fall of the Sanchez-Lozada government in 2003. In Guatemala, home to Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu-an indigenous Mayan-the country's bitter civil war ended in 1996, with the Peace Accords that included an Agreement on the Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And Peru elected its first indigenous president, Alejandro Toledo, in 2000.

But palpable change on the economic front has been slower. In 1994, a World Bank report (Psacharopoulos and Patrinos) provided the first regional assessment of living standards among indigenous peoples, finding systematic evidence of socioeconomic conditions far worse than those of the population on average. Ten years later, a major World Bank follow-up study (Hall and Patrinos, 2005) found that while programs have been launched to improve access to health care and education, indigenous peoples still consistently account for the highest and "stickiest" poverty rates in the region. This slow progress poses a major hurdle for many countries trying to reach the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the 1990 poverty rate by 2015.

Who are the indigenous peoples of Latin America? While there is great diversity among groups, they share certain characteristics, such as distinct language (even if many no longer speak it fluently), culture, and attachment to land-all stemming from the fact that their ancestry can be traced to the original, pre-Colombian inhabitants of the region. Estimates for the number of indigenous people vary from 28 million to 43 million. In the five countries that have the largest indigenous populations-Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru-indigenous peoples represent a significant share of the population (in Bolivia, they are the majority). There are literally hundreds of different indigenous groups. In Mexico alone, there are 56 recognized indigenous groups and 62 living languages.

A yawning gap

The World Bank's 1994 report uncovered striking evidence of low human capital (education and health) as a driving force behind the high poverty rates, coupled with evidence of social exclusion via labor market discrimination and limited access to public education and health services. What does the picture look like now?

Poverty...