A/60/358 and international public and private entities can develop appropriate economic, social and welfare policies for the benefit of these groups. 46. In recent years Governments have pledged to take measures within the context of strategies and programmes designed to reduce poverty and eliminate extreme poverty. In order to be consistent and genuinely effective, such strategies must take into consideration the human rights dimension of poverty and its solutions. Accordingly, at the request of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, OHCHR initiated the task of developing substantive guidelines for the integration of human rights in poverty reduction strategies. 47. At the time of writing of the present report, this task had not been completed. However, the Special Rapporteur reports that all of the 18 guidelines contained in the first draft are related to issues of crucial importance to the protection and promotion of indigenous people’s human rights. The Special Rapporteur calls upon all relevant stakeholders to support this process, with a view to promptly finalizing the guidelines and putting them to effective use. B. Access to education 48. For indigenous peoples, the full enjoyment of all human rights requires, first and foremost, the full attainment of their right to education, which is essential if such peoples are to emerge from the exclusion and discrimination they have historically endured, and therefore also from poverty. The Special Rapporteur’s main report to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-first session focused on this topic. Moreover, to support his research on that problem, OHCHR and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held an expert seminar in Paris in October 2004, whose recommendations were submitted to the Commission by the Special Rapporteur (E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.4). 49. The information and testimony assembled by the Special Rapporteur reveal that in many countries there are obstacles to full access to education for indigenous children, particularly girls, and that such services are often of poorer quality than those provided to the non-indigenous population. 50. After many decades in which the predominant educational model was one that encouraged the assimilation of indigenous people, there is now a growing tendency to develop education policies based on respect for cultural diversity and the promotion of bilingual and intercultural education. However, the institutional, pedagogical, cultural and linguistic problems that this new approach entails have not been fully resolved. 51. The information assembled by the Special Rapporteur also reveals that the goal of enabling all indigenous children to attend and complete primary school is unfortunately far from universal fulfilment. The supply of educational services for indigenous children is generally below the recommended minimum. Of particular concern are the difficulties that indigenous girls face in school, which are due largely to ethnic and gender discrimination. The situation is often exacerbated by gender discrimination within their own communities. 52. The educational needs of indigenous communities are generally given low priority in Governments’ education plans, meaning that these communities receive fewer material and institutional resources per student than does the non-indigenous 13