E/CN.4/2006/19 page 7 people of African descent could be made more visible and easily available and could inform policy- making. 23. Mr. Kasanda recalled that the Working Group had stressed the fact that people of African descent were largely invisible because they were often absent or excluded from domestic data collection, statistical analysis and programming, as well as from national public life and the media. The collection of disaggregated data was a crucial exercise to understand patterns of inequality. The recording of achievement of the Goals, if not based on disaggregated results, could mask groups that were missing out. 24. Mr. Kasanda submitted that for each of the Millennium Development Goals, a specific analysis based upon the situation of people of African descent could help improve social inclusion and development interventions. Strategies to mainstream the situation of people of African descent into plans for achieving the Goals would have to take into account the following questions: the advantages of achieving the Goals with the inclusion of ethnic groups; how to focus on and to identify disadvantaged groups in a society without creating any stigma; and how to ensure that ethnic communities supported the plans for the achievement of the Goals. He recalled that the process towards the attainment of the Goals involved all concerned stakeholders: States, NGOs, people of African descent and national human rights Institutions. Each of these actors had a role and should have a say in the monitoring and evaluating of development strategies towards the achievement of the Goals. 25. Mr. John McArthur, Deputy Director of the United Nations Millennium Project, made a presentation by video- link from New York on the role of the Millennium Development Goals in combating discrimination. He raised the question as to how to meet the targets and how to incorporate the Goals into planning perspectives for 2015, while addressing systematic inequalities. While there are a number of global strategic partnerships for development, there is not yet a goal-oriented system. The Goals needed to be translated into operational and practical goals and there was the necessity of coordinating core practical successes at the national and international levels. The issue at stake was that of taking seriously the goals, to turn them into concrete actions. Each country was empowered to achieve these goals, however, it was important to identify the constraints on the ground and deve lop means to overcome them. 26. The country level is the key playing field for achieving the Millennium Development Goals through processes leading to community empowerment strategies and the active participation of civil society and marginalized groups, so as to achieve “universal access”. He also discussed the importance of indicators to measure the impact of policies and actions aimed at achieving the Goals, which he linked to the question of investments and planning. He discussed the role of the United Nations in this regard and elaborated on the key role to be played by United Nations Country Teams, through a participatory approach involving civil society and the international financial institutions, in ensuring that the Goals were translated into the empowerment of those countries that were disempowered at the international level. 27. Ms. Edna Maria Santos Roland, a member of the Group of independent eminent experts, submitted that the Millennium Declaration was specially focused on policies and measures to enhance the development indicators of the general population of a given country and, at the global level, to reduce the inequalities between developed countries and developing countries and economies in transition. One year before the World Conference against Racism, the