The Forum decides to hold a meeting of four of its members with the Inter-Agency Support Group (IASG) at its annual session of IASG, in 2004.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the particular concerns of African indigenous youth, who are striving against political, social and economic challenges, poverty, marginalization and a lack of capacity development and employment. The Permanent Forum calls upon, among others, the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union, including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, to provide adequate capacity-building programmes and opportunities to enable African indigenous youth, women and persons with disabilities to engage meaningfully with States and other key development players, including by organizing and sponsoring attendance at training sessions, conferences and other forums on indigenous issues.
Considering that some indigenous peoples are living in countries that do not have United Nations country offices and lack opportunities to cooperate and coordinate with the United Nations agencies in advancing their rights and well-being, the Permanent Forum invites the United Nations system to cooperate with indigenous peoples in those regions.
The Forum recommends that in order to raise further awareness of indigenous peoples and the Millennium Development Goals, the Economic and Social Council High-level Segment to be held from 29 June to 1 July 2005, and the General Assembly Summit to be held in September 2005 allow presentations of recommendations of the Forum at its fourth session on the Millennium Development Goals by the Chairperson of the Forum
Ensure that indigenous women's expertise is reflected in all national and international development strategies and that indigenous women, in consultation with their communities and organizations, are part of the formulation and decision-making processes of sustainable development initiatives. Efforts towards gender equality should be integrated as part of States' investments in all of the Millennium Development Goals
The Permanent Forum is very concerned that indigenous peoples continue to report difficulties in participating in UNDP projects and engaging with UNDP offices. The Forum recommends that UNDP improve access to information on the Programme for indigenous peoples and ensure easier access to its staff members in country offices. UNDP should promote mechanisms that ensure a constructive and institutionalized dialogue between indigenous peoples and United Nations country teams at the country level, for example, by establishing advisory boards composed of indigenous representatives who can bring their perspectives to United Nations programming processes and policies.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the UNDP Global Programme for Electoral Cycle Support initiative, with its focus on indigenous women and youth in Latin America, and appreciates the contributions provided by donors to ensure the success of the initiative. The Forum recommends that Member States, UN-Women and UNICEF provide financial support for this important initiative for indigenous women and youth.
The Forum takes note with satisfaction of the enhanced contributions of the United Nations system in its work, and recommends that the United Nations system, Governments, indigenous and other organizations further assist in the implementation and monitoring of the Forum’s recommendations and report to the Forum at its annual sessions. The Forum notes with appreciation the database of recommendations and their implementation status, as well as indicative time frames prepared by its secretariat, and recommends that the secretariat further develop this as a useful tool.
The Permanent Forum confirms its commitment to making indigenous children and youth an ongoing part of its work. In so doing, it acknowledges the efforts made by organizations representing indigenous peoples, United Nations bodies and States to address the urgent needs of indigenous children and youth, including in the areas of education, health, culture, extreme poverty, mortality, sexual exploitation, militarization, displacement, removal by missionaries, incarceration and labour, among others.
The Forum, taking into account the importance and potential of regional inter-governmental organizations in promoting indigenous issues in their respective regions, invites those organizations to contribute annually to its work.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the role of indigenous parliamentarians in the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights, and thus recommends increasing their participation in the sessions of the Permanent Forum, adopting regional and national mechanisms to monitor the recommendations and working towards the establishment of particular mechanisms of participation.
The Forum welcomes resolution 49/7 of the Commission on the Status of Women, entitled "Indigenous women beyond the ten-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action", adopted in March 2005, and recommends to the United Nations system and Governments to implement that resolution