Free Prior and Informed Consent: An indigenous peoples’ right and a good practice for local communities - Manual for project practitioners

The Manual on Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) outlines essential ways to ensure Indigenous Peoples, can give or withold their consent to interventions proposed in their lands and territories and do so free of coercion, prior to any decisions being made, and with the necessary information presented to them in a culturally appropriate way. 

It builds on a year of consultation with various Indigenous Peoples —  and underlines Indigenous Peoples' intrinsic right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and international law. Key to this is the ability to give or withhold consent for a proposed development project. The manual outlines essential steps to follow along the lifecycle of a development project, from identifying which communities need to be consulted to sharing achievements after the project has been completed. Along the way, the guidelines give special attention to include traditional leaders, women and youth in consultations and decisionmaking.

The manual is the result of one year of collaboration between FAO and partner organizations including Action Aid, Action Against Hunger, Agencia Española de Cooperación International para el Desarrollo (AECID), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GiZ), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and World Vision.