The Forum expresses its appreciation to the Inter-Agency Support Group for its contribution to its work during its third session and in-between sessions, as well as for the documents provided to the Forum. The Forum also expresses its appreciation for the attendance of the session by representatives of the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, renews its invitation to the United Nations system to continue to attend its sessions, and expresses the hope that this constructive engagement will continue.
With regard to paragraph 139 of the report of the Permanent Forum on its sixth session, the Forum calls upon Governments, indigenous peoples organizations, regional administrations and local self-governance organs of the countries of the Arctic region to take an active part in the discussion on the Arctic region at the eighth session of the Forum. The Forum urges the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations to give special consideration to applications from indigenous participants from the Arctic region.
The Forum recommends that the agencies and bodies of the United Nations, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund rethink the concept of development, with the full participation of indigenous peoples in development processes, taking into account the rights of indigenous peoples and the practices of their traditional knowledge.
The Permanent Forum intends to make the formulation of an indigenous peoples’ development index, based on the human rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration and international human rights instruments, a recurring part of its agenda. The Forum recommends that the United Nations Development Programme, especially its Human Development Report Office, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights assist the Forum in developing such an index, building on existing initiatives by indigenous peoples and United Nations agencies, and report thereon to the Forum at its fifteenth session
The Forum urges international donor agencies, regional organizations and States to incorporate indigenous people’s issues in the formulation of sector policies for development cooperation and to address indigenous peoples’ issues in their joint development programmes and projects to ensure that indigenous peoples and their issues are effectively mainstreamed into their work.