The programs of the Indigenous Water Initiative seek to support the principles of the Indigenous Peoples' Kyoto Water Declaration, adopted at the last World Water Forum in March 2003. The Indigenous Water Initiative focuses on the following three priority activities:

1. Indigenous Water Rights.  How can indigenous people protect their customary rights to water?   How are water rights linked to human rights and cultural rights? 

2.  Indigenous Water Values.  Indigenous societies understand water and water bodies as having spiritual and living attributes.  Water is valued by indigenous societies not only for what the water can provide to humans, but also for what the water is in itself.  

3   Indigenous Water Managment.  Although indigenous peoples are actively managing irrigation systems, springs, and parts of rivers, lakes, etc in many parts of the world, these systems of indigenous knowledge are often overlooked and under-appreciated.  Their systems of knowledge and understandings about water need to enter the discourse of dominant, conventional water management, which is in urgent need of new ideas, including ancient "new" ideas.   At the same time, some new technologies can offer great benefits to indigenous management systems.   

4.Indigneous water visioning and planning. Indigenous water development plans should reflect indigenous values. The Initiative offers technical support to indigenous communities for water planning that blends traditional styles of decision-making with participatory group processes such as Appreciative Inquiry and Strategic Visioning.

5. Awareness raising.  Development agencies and state/national governments face a steep learning curve in understanding the perspective of indigenous peoples about water development. The Initiative supports indigenous inputs in a variety of fora where water policies are discussed, such as water conferences, training programs, and professional water journals.