the first decade of the millennium left contrasting and sometimes contradictory messages for indigenous peoples in Latin America like all the Latin Americans indigenous peoples benefited tremendously from the golden decade the achieve improve access to many basic services and education and they reduce poverty levels significantly they were included more in decision-making processes throughout the region legal frameworks that protect the rights were improved and as a result of their participation in electoral processes today the whole places of leadership are all levels of government Latin America in fact stood at the forefront worldwide 15 of the 22 countries that have ratified the International labor organizations indigenous and tribal peoples convention number 169 are Latin American nevertheless indigenous peoples did not benefit from the golden decade in the same way as the rest of Latin Americans did there are still major gaps and barriers that to a large extent limit their inclusion on an equal footing with others in Peru for example the number of indigenous households living in poverty decreased by 45% but among non indigenous inhabitants the reduction was 55 percent this means that the pre-existing gap at the beginning of the decade in fact wider this phenomenon is repeated in most of the region with the result that the proportion of indigenous households living in poverty is still double that of non-indigenous households there are 42 million indigenous peoples in Latin America about 8 percent of the population but they represent 17% of all persons living in extreme poverty this reflects the existence of barriers that limit the ability of indigenous families to integrate into markets and benefit from public policies equitably for example if we compared to households in Ecuador with similar conditions the probability of living in poverty increases 15% in the head of household is indigenous 6% more if that person is also a woman and 26% more he that person lives in a rural area in addition the probability that a number of Delta has completed secondary education is reduced by more than 17 percent furthermore new forms of exclusion and new development challenges are emerging today half the indigenous populations in Latin America live in urban areas but we know very little about them the policies and programs are usually designed for rural areas in cities in the US people's much more often than not living unsafe settlements without access to basic services owning settlements that are polluted for example 36% of indigenous households are living in slums or favelas double the number of non-indigenous households the number of indigenous peoples living in cities but in houses with dirt floors and no electricity is six times higher that for non indigenous inhabitants indigenous peoples often have their own vision of what development is and why is it important if they're going to assume the role as key players in the development agenda their voices and ideas must be taken into account the indigenous Latin America in the 21st century report aims to contribute to this dialogue with a review of their status and achievements as well as the challenges ahead at the end of the first decade of the millennium in short indigenous peoples are indispensable partners for the region on the path of sustainable growth and inclusive prosperity including them therefore is not only morally right it is economically smart