UNESCO’s Medium-Term Strategy for the period 2014-2021 affirms that “the Organization will implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) across all relevant programme areas” and develop and implement “a UNESCO-wide policy on engaging with indigenous peoples”. The development of this policy was initiated with a scoping of UNESCO activities of relevance to indigenous peoples, and then followed by meetings and dialogue workshops with indigenous peoples and UNESCO staff. Based on these inputs, an intersectoral working group consisting of staff from all programme sectors and support services prepared an initial draft of the UNESCO Policy. Consultations were held with UNESCO Member States, and the comments received were incorporated into the draft text. The draft Policy on engaging with indigenous peoples was considered by the UNESCO Executive Board at both its 201st and 202nd session. The UNESCO Executive Board took note of the policy with satisfaction at its 202nd session in October 2017. The UNESCO Policy on engaging with indigenous peoples guides the Organization’s work, in all areas of its mandate, that involve or are relevant for indigenous peoples and of potential benefit or risk to them. It ensures that the Organization’s policies, planning, programming and implementation uphold the UNDRIP.