Considering that indigenous peoples are empowered to assume leadership in governments at various levels, particularly at the local level, the Permanent Forum urges the United Nations system, including the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDP and all other relevant agencies, with the support of Member States and donor agencies, to implement, before the convening of its next session, a platform for indigenous local-local cooperation and the establishment of a network of indigenous local governments for information exchange and capacity-building on public administration, local socio-economic governance and participatory approaches to facilitate the implementation of the goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the United Nations development agenda at the local level among indigenous peoples in all regions.
The Permanent Forum invites Member States to participate in informal discussions on the effective and efficient impacts of the Permanent Forum on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, including in the contexts of biodiversity, climate change, desertification and the enjoyment of human rights by indigenous peoples, in particular efforts to combat violence against indigenous women and children. The Permanent Forum also invites Member States to enhance the effective participation of indigenous peoples in the design and implementation of efforts in the context the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development; the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028; the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration; and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
The Permanent Forum congratulates the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity for considering the important role of indigenous peoples in its activities related to the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010 and recommends that it fund and organize a workshop on indigenous peoples and biological diversity as part of its celebration of the Year.
The Permanent Forum appoints Les Malezer, a member of the Forum, to undertake a study on indigenous peoples and sustainable development, to be submitted to the Forum at its seventeenth session.