There is no agreed legal definition of the term “indigenous people.” However the United Nations United Natiions Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has approved the following description, stating that the UN has developed a modern understanding of the term based on the following:

• Self- identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their member.
• Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies.
• Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources.
• Distinct social, economic or political systems.
• Distinct language, culture and beliefs.
• Form non-dominant groups of society.
• Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities.

According to the UN the most fruitful approach is to identify, rather than define indigenous peoples. This is based on the fundamental criterion of self-identification as underlined in a number of human rights documents.

The eight groups in the Lower Omo Valley fit this definition and are considered indigenous peoples.

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Factsheet: Who are Indigenous Peoples.

Definitions of pastoralism vary widely, but generally all involve a focus on livestock production and some form of mobility. Agro-pastoralism combines elements of pastoralism with sedentary agriculture. Many of the Lower Omo’s indigenous communities practice agro-pastoralism. They grow food along the banks of the Omo River and other fertile locations in addition to cattle rearing. See http://data.iucn.org/wisp/pastoralism-definitions.html for more definitions of pastoralism.

Africa’s tallest dam has been under construction since 2006 and is scheduled to be in operation by 2014. It will generate 1870MW of much needed power for Ethiopia and neighboring countries, but at a cost to local people. The annual flood of the Omo River, so critical for sorghum production, will be eliminated, and water levels in Kenya’s Lake Turkana could be reduced by as much as 22 meters. Major International Financial Institutions (World Bank, European Investment Bank, etc) declined to finance the dam. A significant portion of the funding for the $2 billion project comes from the Industrial-commercial Bank of China.

Ethiopia also has plans to construct Gibe IV and Gibe V dams on the Omo River.

Power generated from the Gibe dams will be used inside Ethiopia or for export to neighboring countries.

• The Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) - US$500 million financing of Gibe III in August 2010
• The China Development Bank - US$500 million in loans to build two sugar processing factories, one of which is in the Omo Valley.
• The Export-Import Bank of India - US$640 million in financing for Ethiopia’s sugar industry countrywide. One of the conditions is that 75% of this loan must be used for goods and services imported from India.
• The World Bank US$684 million in financing approved in July 2012 for a transmission line that would export power from Ethiopia to Kenya.

The villagization program is part of a national initiative to move 1.5 million pastoralists and agro-pastoralists into permanent villages in five regions of Ethiopia. In 2010 and 2011, Human Rights Watch documented human rights violations related to the first year of the villagization program in Gambella region. In Gambella, indigenous people weremoved into new villages by force. Locations were dry and not suitable for food production and services were not provided as promised. People who questioned the program were often arbitrarily detained, threatened, or beaten. Due to the negative impact of this program, several thousand people fled to neighboring South Sudan and Kenya. For more information see Waiting Here for Death Villagization is also underway in Ethiopia’s Afar, Somali, and Benishangul-Gumuz regions.

The Protection of Basic Services (PBS) program is a national effort to provide services in the areas of education, health care, water, roads and agriculture. The program contributes to the salaries of local government employees, including teachers, healthcare extension workers and administrative officials, some of whomare implementing the villagization program by mobilizing people to move to the new villages.In September 2012 the third round of financing for the PBS program was approved. The major contributors to PBS are the World Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the African Development Bank, and the European Commission.

According to the villagization plan for Lower Omo, the Pastoral Development Community Development Project (PCDP) is also expected to fund certain services in new villages or resettlement sites. PCDP is funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank. The third round of financing for PCDP was approved by the World Bank in December 2013.

“The people and the local governments are very happy. We have not seen any conflict between investors and the community.” "
Source: Ethiopia leases land for Agriculture to Earn Foreign Exchange - Bloomberg, November 10, 2009

“No citizen will be forced out of his/her location without their individual will for resettlement or any other purpose. The project site and the selected locations in South Omo are not anywhere close to human dwellings to disturb inhabitant’s lifestyle. It is an area which is hardly inhabited at all except at a widely scattered pattern.
Shiferaw Teklemariam, then Minister of Federal Affairs, letter to Human Rights Watch, December 19, 2011

“The government’s principle is persuasion not forceful eviction. That is why two years were spent to persuade the community about the benefits of the villagization programme. Not a single person was forcefully evicted.” Molloka Wubneh, Chief Administrator of South Omo Zone.
South Omo Zone holds Nation’s Sweet Promise” Walta, October 9, 2012

In June 2011, the UN World Heritage Committee called on the Ethiopian government to "immediately halt all construction" on Gibe III, and encouraged all financiers "to put on hold their financial support" until the Committee’s next annual meeting in June 2012. Neither the Ethiopian government nor the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) heeded this call.

From UNESCO World Heritage Committee Decision 35COM 7B.3 Lake Turkana National Parks (Kenya) (N 801 bis), June 19-29, 2011

The UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in September 2011requested “information on measures taken to conduct an independent assessment of the negative effects of the construction of the [Gibe III and sugar plantation] projects on the livelihood of the Lower Omo peoples and measures taken to consult them in an effective and appropriate manner.” No response has been received as of November 2013.

From 2011 report on Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 79th session, August 8, 2011-September 2, 2011

International donors have undertaken at least two assessments in the Lower Omo Valley. Transcripts made available from the first assessment reveal that individuals from affected communities described human rights abuses they had experienced. According to the assessment: “these allegations included:

• Up to 80 arrests of innocent people
• Destroyed grain stores for land clearance
• Government threats including “sell your cattle or we will inject and kill them”
• Confiscation of cattle medicine
• Limited access to seasonal agricultural lands (for flood retreat agriculture) near the Omo River
• Siphoning off of food aid
• Lack of communication – meetings held significant distances away either in Jinka or Hanu [sp?]
• Use of force and intimidation with presence of "military" [likely federal police]
• Rape of women and in one case a young boy.

Members of the Mursi and Bodi communities said they were living in fear, were resorting to other food sources or going hungry. One individual said that they were “waiting to die.”

Justine Greening, the UK secretary of state for international development, in response to a parliamentary enquiry, stated they was “not able to substantiate the allegations of human rights violation it received during its visit to South Omo in January 2012.” It is not clear what steps the UK has taken, if any, to further investigate the allegations. The report of a second assessment in November 2012 has not been made public as of January 2014.

In August 2011, the Kenyan parliament passed a resolution calling for a suspension of dam construction pending further studies. In March 2012 it was announced that the Kenyan government announced it had signed an agreement with Ethiopia to purchase up to 400MW of electricity annually from Ethiopia. The Kenyan government has since been silent on the issues in the Lower Omo Valley that could have a devastating impact on 300,000 Kenyan citizens living around Lake Turkana.

“In summary these allegations included:

• Registration and confiscation of weapons and munitions
• Up to eighty arrests of ‘innocent’ people
• Destroyed grain stores for land clearance
• Government threats including “sell your cattle or we will inject and kill them”
• Confiscation of cattle medicine
• Limited access to seasonal agricultural lands (for flood retreat agriculture) near the Omo River
• Siphoning off of food aid
• Lack of communication – meetings held significant distances away either in Jinka or Hanu [sp?]
• Use of force and intimidation with presence of ‘military’ [likely federal police]
• Rape of women and in one case a young boy.

As a consequence of these events the Mursi and Bodi in particular stated that they were living in fear, resorting to other food sources or going hungry. The phrase ‘waiting to die’ was used. Although these allegations are extremely serious they could not be substantiated by this visit.” (the Omo donor assessment pdf)

Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether her Department found that human rights violations were occurring in South Omo in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region, Ethiopia during its recent mission to that area. [126709]

Justine Greening: The Department for International Development was not able to substantiate the allegations of human rights violation it received during its visit to South Omo in January 2012, and will be returning to the area to examine these further.

Beehives are a key component of the livelihoods of Bodi, Kwegu and other Lower Omo peoples. The honey from the bees is consumed or sold/traded for other goods.