E/CN.4/1997/71/Add.1 page 9 specializing in different fields and including an economist, environmental planning expert and a physician, assisted by eight technicians from the communities working directly at the grass-roots level. 27. As the strengthening of community organization is one of the objectives of Act No. 70, a High-level Advisory Commission was established on 29 September 1994 to verify compliance with the provisions of the Act. It consists of representatives of the Black communities in the departments of Antioquia, Valle, Cauca, Nariño, Chocó, Costa Atlantica and San Andrés y Providencia and of government representatives headed by the Deputy Minister of the Interior, who serves as Chairman, his counterparts in the Ministry of Economic Development, Mines and Energy and the Ministry of the Environment, and officials from the National Planning Department, the Colombian Agrarian Reform Institute (INCORA), the Augustín Covazzi Geographical Institute and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology. The commission fulfils a fundamental ambition of the Black communities, namely, to have a forum for direct dialogue between Black representatives and high-level government officials with responsibility for handling questions of interest to them. 28. A regional advisory commission in each department studies regional questions of interest to the communities and transmits them to the High-level Advisory Commission. These departmental commissions are the focal point for a large number of organizations which come from all regions to explain their problems. 29. At the institutional level, a Directorate of Black Community Affairs was established within the Ministry of the Interior to handle questions relating to those communities from the government side. The Directorate was provided with the technological and administrative resources necessary for the performance of its duties. It has drawn up a plan of action providing, in particular, for the preparation of a map showing the locations of the Black communities, the identification of their needs, and follow-up on organizational activities and economic and social development. 30. In some municipalities, Black people are represented on the town council and special administrative units have been established to ensure their economic and social development. Thus in Valle, which has a large Black population (400,000 to 600,000 people out of an estimated population of 2 million), a Black Consciousness and Ethnic Groups Division has been established, employing four people of Afro-Colombian origin. Representatives of the Black community also sit on city council. Similarly, in Cartagena, where approximately 600,000 Black people live, 7 out of 20 members of the city council belong to the Black community, and the municipal government has begun a training programme for Afro-Colombian managers. The municipal department of administrative services and departments of community development are headed by Afro-Colombians. 2. Measures in support of indigenous populations 31. A programme of support and ethnic strengthening of the indigenous peoples of Colombia, covering the period 1995-1998 has been prepared by the Department of Indigenous Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior. It covers