Government partners may need support to balance economic, social and cultural participation of minorities with political participation. Many focus on creating political institutions for minorities (e.g. national minority councils or designated seats in parliament) without taking sufficient measures to ensure that economic, social and cultural life is equally inclusive. Build UNDP Country Office capacity to address minority issues:      Review existing UNDP Country Office capacity on minority issues, including in areas such as knowledge of: regions where minorities live; the socio-economic profile of minority communities; minority languages and media; minority community leaders; non-discrimination and minority rights legislation. Identify staff with existing competencies in minority issues. Perhaps establish a diversity plan to recruit staff with competencies on minority issues, languages and non-discrimination. Initiate a sensitization programme for staff on issues of non-discrimination and minority rights.    Ensure that UNDP support is monitored to prevent direct or indirect discrimination and to determine the impact of interventions on minorities. Integrate specific measurements into monitoring and evaluation activities to assess impact on minority groups. (see Tools 6-7) Some government ministries may be more open to working on minority issues than others. It may be more strategic to begin, for instance, with the Ministry of Justice to improve access 4 National Human Rights Institutions and National Councils on Minorities (or municipal level equivalents) are usually appropriate partners. National Statistics Offices can help produce good and reliable data for policy responses on minority issues. CSOs from minority communities, and/or CSOs that articulate minority concerns, are important agents and are typically eager to support UNDP and the government in their work. Identify leverage points:   Integrate into the programme cycle specific considerations for the situation of minorities. (see Tool 8) Identify national partners:  to justice for the most marginalised minorities or the Ministry of Health to review access to health services and culturally relevant health provisions for minorities.  Encouraging the inclusion and participation of minorities and their organisations in human development efforts and governance contributes to more cohesive, peaceful and stronger societies. Recommendations from international mechanisms often highlight the situation of minorities. For example, the Universal Periodic Review process of the UN Human Rights Council, Treaty body concluding observations and Special Procedures’ reports offer useful recommendations to support governments in protecting and including minorities. Regional minority rights initiatives may stimulate government involvement. The above steps are not exhaustive. The Resource Guide and Toolkit offer practical guidance to support UNDP staff to effectively respond to minority issues, thus contributing to broader development outcomes. M A R G I N A L I S E D M I N O R I T I E S I N D E V E LO P M E N T P R O G R A M M I N g