E/2010/43 E/C.19/2010/15 50. The Permanent Forum urges UNDP to enhance its own capacity in the area of indigenous peoples’ issues by ensuring sufficient expertise and human resources, in particular at the headquarters level, but also in its regional centres, including regional policy advisers on indigenous peoples’ issues who are able to provide adequate support to country offices. 51. In order to enhance its capacity, first-hand understanding and leadership in the area of indigenous peoples’ issues, the Permanent Forum strongly recommends that UNDP establish training programmes similar to the Leadership Development Programme and junior professional programmes focused on attracting indigenous professionals or incorporate an indigenous component in existing programmes. 52. The Permanent Forum commends the UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean for starting a regional initiative building on the Programme’s experience in Asia. The Forum recommends that that initiative be consolidated and that the Regional Bureau implement a regional programme to ensure crossfertilization of good practices among countries and coherent policy approaches. The Forum encourages the Regional Bureau to strengthen its capacity and, together with the Inter-Agency Support Group, looks forward to supporting those efforts through specialized training workshops for United Nations country teams. 53. The Permanent Forum recommends that a capacity-development component be included in UNDP projects that affect indigenous peoples. The Forum also recommends that the experience and knowledge of the Small Grants Programme of the Global Environmental Facility be utilized by other small-grant schemes and that a stronger link be developed between efforts to enhance the capacity of indigenous peoples’ organizations and UNDP efforts to enhance the participation of indigenous peoples in national policy processes. 54. The Permanent Forum urges UNDP to further strengthen the right to selfdetermination of indigenous peoples by choosing indigenous peoples’ organizations as their implementing partners and responsible parties in their projects involving indigenous peoples, especially those with established track records in project implementation. As a corollary to the foregoing, government agencies created to promote and protect the rights and interests of indigenous peoples should be preferred as implementing partners in UNDP programming on indigenous peoples’ issues so that they can effectively perform their mandate. V. United Nations Population Fund 55. The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held an in-depth dialogue with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on 26 May 2009 as part of its new working methods during the eighth session. The Permanent Forum welcomes the participation of UNFPA and expresses its appreciation for the detailed and informative report submitted by the Fund on its activities in support of indigenous peoples’ issues in recent years, in particular its work in addressing indigenous women’s rights and reproductive rights (E/C.19/2009/3). e __________________ e 10-36959 For a detailed narrative of the in-depth dialogue, see the summary prepared by the Department of Public Information (HR/4986), available at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/ hr4986.doc.htm. 39