1. Indigenous Knowledge and Importance
Presented By:
Kailash Soni
PGP-2, IIMA

2. Agenda What is Indigenous knowledge
Difference with Scientific/Western Knowledge
Threats to indigenous knowledge
Biases with the bottom of the pyramid
Ways to improve these biases
Conservation of Indigenous knowledge

3. Indigenous knowledge Traditional Knowledge
Related to a community or a culture
Respect for the earth
Contemporary knowledge is also sometimes a part of Indigenous knowledge
Decreasing number of traditional group/societies
Forests, crops first bred by society then scientific research

4. Indigenous knowledge Vs Scientific knowledge
Methodological and epistemological grounds
Contextual grounds
Substantive grounds

5. Threats to indigenous knowledge
Prior informed consent considered not necessary
Pressures of modernization and cultural homogenization
Macro-level problems are supposed to be solved by global pool of knowledge
Continued neglect of international institutions of ethical and professional rights of local communities
Very few Institutions supportive of grass-root innovations and traditional knowledge

6. Biases with bottom of the pyramid
Low confidence
Improper knowledge of their rights
Lower Savings
Lesser planning to achieve goals
Apply indigenous knowledge personally, but very less options of taking them ahead

7. What can remove these biases
Education
Formation of institutional windows (like NIF) of opportunity to carry ideas and traditional knowledge
To ignore people’s knowledge is almost to ensure failure in development (Brokensha et al. 1980)

8. Conservation of Indigenous knowledge
Documentation, storage in international, regional and national archives
Formation of more foundations like NIF which can carry grassroot level innovations ideas forward
To ignore people’s knowledge is almost to ensure failure in development (Brokensha et al. 1980)

9. Thank You