A/HRC/16/46 services, land tenure and property rights and/or social security.4 Affirmative action measures should be a component of a comprehensive equality strategy and may cover a broad spectrum of tools, policies and practices, from benchmarks and quotas to targeted recruitment, hiring and promotion, and may include legislative reform or targeted budgetary support. Decisions on policy choices should be made in meaningful consultation with minority groups, be transparent and be supported by disaggregated data demonstrating existing inequalities. 38. Persons belonging to minorities who experience intersecting discrimination may require additional measures to ensure that they have equal access to their right to non-discrimination and remedies in cases of violations. Such measures should be responsive to the fact that girls and women usually bear multiple work burdens, within and outside the home, that require amelioration and support. Additionally, age and disability impose special vulnerabilities that commonly result in poorer economic status. 39. The right of minorities to be informed of and participate in the elaboration of macroeconomic and social policy at the national level and in local level economic and social policy decision-making should be guaranteed, including participation in relevant standing committees and ad hoc consultative mechanisms. These are, however, no substitute for formal representation in governance structures. Governments should conduct human rights impact assessments for proposed economic and social policy reforms to ensure that there is no direct or indirect discrimination against minorities or other violations of minority rights. Budgetary allocations by sector and region should address inequalities experienced by minorities, including minority women in those sectors and regions. Information on budgetary allocations should be transparent and accessible to minority groups, including through the publication of budgets in minority languages and coverage in minority media outlets. 40. The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is critical to securing the full and effective participation of minorities in economic life. There is, however, a risk that minorities will be excluded from or harmed by policies linked to the Goals. 5 Governments are encouraged to establish new Millennium Development Goals Plus indicators for those targets that minorities are at particular risk of not achieving. National poverty action plans and, where applicable, the implementation of poverty reduction strategy papers should be pursued with the full and effective participation of minorities to ensure that essential principles for poverty reduction such as accountability, equality, non-discrimination, participation and empowerment are fully achieved. Indicators to measure poverty should take into consideration the cultures and lifestyles of minorities in order to assess poverty from the perspective of the community’s aspirations rather than only those of dominant groups. 41. Governments should support the establishment of a voluntary fund for minorities (see paragraph 64 below). 4 5 10 See general recommendation 32 of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the meaning and scope of special measures in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. See also the report of the independent expert on the Millennium Development Goals and minorities (A/HRC/4/9/Add.1).