E/2010/43 E/C.19/2010/15 experience of two cities in Ecuador which are managed by indigenous mayors on the basis of a cross-cultural participatory approach. 70. The Permanent Forum commends the efforts made to include indigenous peoples in statistics and disaggregated data. As the Permanent Forum has pointed out, data collection and disaggregation concerning indigenous peoples poses unique challenges. The latest version of the United Nations Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, produced by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, elaborates the need to disaggregate statistics on the basis of ethnocultural characteristics, especially with respect to indigenous populations. The Statistics Division, as part of its series of special topics, collected, processed and disseminated data on ethnocultural characteristics as available in the 2000 census round, complementing it with the set of questions used in national censuses to capture the data in the various categories. 71. In this regard, the Permanent Forum notes with appreciation the recommendation of the United Nations Statistics Commission that all countries undertake at least one national census on population and housing during the period 2005-2014 and that field work be conducted on existing social structures, including indigenous peoples’ communities. In addition, the Commission’s guidelines clearly state that all questionnaires must be translated into all languages, including all indigenous peoples’ languages, that indigenous peoples be recruited to conduct questionnaires in order to ensure that responses in national censuses are of a high quality and that technical support staff work with indigenous elders to ensure that indigenous peoples understand the census process and that their issues are addressed. 72. With regard to other issues affecting indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum commends the Division for the Advancement of Women for including indigenous women in its database on violence against women, which was launched in March 2009, as well as highlighting the needs of indigenous girls in education programmes aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child, and for focusing on rural indigenous women in its 2007 report and in discussions on climate change addressing indigenous women’s vulnerability. 73. The Permanent Forum commends the Division for Sustainable Development for its initiative to select indigenous peoples’ organizations to conduct fieldwork and data compilation for the Division and for the fact that national data indicators on indigenous peoples are available in the Division’s national recording mechanisms and country profiles. The Permanent Forum also takes note of fact that the Division for Sustainable Development has hosted side events that inform indigenous peoples about how they can be involved in the Division’s work and that a special study on indigenous peoples in Africa has been conducted. 74. The Permanent Forum notes that the Division for Public Administration and Development Management conducted work on indigenous peoples’ civic participation and offered online training for Governments on the rights of indigenous peoples, commencing with the development of various governance indicators, as they pertained to indigenous people. Furthermore, as indigenous women constitute a special group within indigenous societies and are thus especially disadvantaged, it is important that they be a target group. 10-36959 43