The Forum expresses concern over development practices that do not take into account the particular characteristics of indigenous communities as groups, with their distinct cultural identities and often their own systems of representation, thus significantly undermining meaningful ways of participation in the assessment, preparation, execution and evaluation of development programmes of their concern.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations agencies supporting and promoting the Healthy Environments for Children Alliance, namely WHO, UNICEF, UNEP and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT), include a particular focus on indigenous children and youth.
The Forum welcomes the new initiatives undertaken by UNICEF with regard to indigenous children, in particular the ongoing development of a digest on the indigenous child, as well as a number of case studies aimed at understanding development programming to fulfill the rights of indigenous children. The Forum requests UNICEF to make the digest and the results of those studies available to the Forum at its third session.