A/HRC/45/34/Add.1 the first half of 2020, was postponed because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. 2. National Development Plan for 2018–2022 19. The National Development Plan for 2018–20227 emphasizes inclusive development and recognizes the specific challenges facing indigenous peoples. It provides guidance for improving governance, reforming the educational and vocational training systems and diversifying the economy by focusing on growth sectors. 20. Through the Plan, the Government pledges to work towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of Agenda 2063 of the African Union, leaving no one behind. The two main challenges to improving indigenous peoples’ conditions identified in the Plan are discrimination and poverty. 8 The Plan sets out a series of actions, some of which do not appear in the draft national action plan for indigenous peoples, for addressing those challenges. For instance, the Plan includes a proposal for a campaign to reduce discriminatory attitudes among the Bantu population, which was recommended by the Special Rapporteur in 2010 but has not yet been fully delivered (see paras. 27–29 below). 21. In the National Development Plan, the Government also sets out a strategy that includes the adoption of a law for the protection of indigenous and other human rights defenders working on the rights of indigenous peoples and a strategy for promoting access to lands and resources and increasing the participation of indigenous peoples in the sustainable management of forests. The Plan does not, however, provide any detail on how these strategies will be concretely developed and implemented. Moreover, these promising proposals are not covered in the draft national action plan for improving the well-being of indigenous peoples for 2020-2023. 3. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD-plus) 22. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the adoption in 2016 by the Government of a national strategy for the implementation of the REDD-plus mechanism that was later supplemented by a planning framework to support indigenous peoples potentially affected by related activities. Through a 2015 environmental and social assessment9 conducted prior to the adoption of the strategy, the Ministry of Forest Economics identified the most pressing social issues affecting indigenous peoples: difficult access to education, health, water and sanitation, as well as the economic and cultural subjection of indigenous peoples to Bantu populations. It also recognized the importance of allocating lands for indigenous peoples. The Special Rapporteur regrets that, in its report, the Ministry seems to support an approach that encourages indigenous peoples to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle in favour of settling down in villages to pursue income-generating activities. In the planning framework, published in November 2018, the Government proposes creating a fund to compensate for the loss of crops destroyed by wildlife, developing a plan to safeguard indigenous sacred sites and cultural heritage, establishing a mechanism to seek the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples and identifying a process for land demarcation and the distribution of land titles. The plan has been allocated approximately US$ 1.5 million and includes a complaints mechanism related to the implementation of REDD-plus.10 C. Disaggregation of data 23. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the statistical data shared with her during her visit, in particular the statistics contained in the REDD-plus assessments for indigenous peoples. 7 8 9 10 6 See https://pnd.plan.gouv.cg/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PPAP_Final.pdf (in French). See https://dgpd.plan.gouv.cg/images/PND-2018-2022---Cadre-stratgique-de-dveloppement.pdf (in French). See www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/sites/fcp/files/fcpdocs/2016/Aug/ESMF%20IP%20Framework%20Draft%2025.08.15.pdf (in French). See http://documentos.bancomundial.org/curated/es/256731559039112296/pdf/Cadre-dePlanification-en-Faveur-des-Peuples-Autochtones.pdf (in French).