A/HRC/9/9 page 21 established the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues, which acts as a clearing house coordinating the action of its different members to support the Permanent Forum’s work. In recent years, some of the agencies members of the Group have adopted new policies, programmes or guidelines or amended existing ones regarding indigenous peoples in ways that are generally - but not necessarily fully - consistent with the principles and rights affirmed in the Declaration. These include, inter alia, the UNDP “Policy of Engagement” with indigenous peoples (2001), the World Bank Operational Policy and Bank Policy on Indigenous Peoples (OP/BP 4.10) (2005), and, at the regional level, the Inter-American Development Bank’s Operational Policy on Indigenous Peoples (OP-765) (2006). 72. Once the Declaration was adopted, the Permanent Forum called upon the specialized agencies to “review their policies and programmes in order to comply with the provisions contained in the Declaration”, with a particular emphasis on ensuring respect for the rights to self-determination and free, prior and informed consent.44 An encouraging initiative in this regard is the adoption in February 2008 of the United Nations Development Group’s Guidelines for Indigenous Peoples’ Issues. These guidelines are intended to assist the United Nations system to mainstream the rights of indigenous peoples in operational activities and programmes at the country level. In addition, UN-Habitat and UNDP are currently engaging in the development of internal policies regarding indigenous peoples, within the framework of the Declaration. 73. The implications of the Declaration for the work of the specialized agencies were analysed by the former Special Rapporteur in his report on the human rights-based approach to development (A/HRC/6/15). He identified international agencies as distinct duty-bearers in this regard, calling upon them to “refrain from supporting programmes and projects which, either directly or indirectly, are or could be conducive to the violations of the rights of indigenous peoples” (para. 72). He further recommended that development cooperation partners should “ensure that their activities help strengthen dialogue and cooperative relations between indigenous peoples and the Governments of the countries in which those peoples live, identifying priority areas and the necessary resources to ensure the effective exercise” of their rights (para. 74). C. Indigenous peoples 74. The objective stated in the eighteenth preambular paragraph of the Declaration of enhancing “harmonious and cooperative relations between the State and indigenous peoples” involves indigenous communities, authorities and organizations as fundamental actors in realizing the rights affirmed in this instrument. The Declaration’s affirmation of the right to self-determination and extension of that right into the different spheres of indigenous life requires positive engagement, in a spirit of partnership, by both States and indigenous peoples, without which the Declaration would never be effective. 44 E/2008/43-E/C.19/2008/13, para. 136.