A/HRC/39/51 VI. Conclusions and recommendations 60. The widening disparities of today’s world require the adoption of sound national and international policies to empower the bottom percentile of income earners and promote inclusion of all regardless of sex, race, ethnicity or any other prohibited grounds of discrimination. 61. What are the steps necessary to effectively reduce inequalities within countries? While this is a complex question that requires context-specific answers, it is nevertheless possible to identify some key areas of action. A. Identifying those left behind 62. One issue that needs to be addressed urgently is the limited availability of adequate data that is disaggregated by, inter alia, gender, age, disability, income, race and ethnicity. Such disaggregated data is needed to accurately assess a situation, to make inequalities visible, and to identify those who have been left behind. Only based on such data can we develop evidence-based policies that specifically target those most in need. Disaggregated data is also important for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development policies and programmes, as well as for the overall tracking of progress in the implementation of the right to development on an equal basis for all segments of society. 63. The Special Rapporteur would like to underline that the collection of data to assess levels of inequality and discrimination has to be done in accordance with a human rights-based approach. This means that data collection should be based on the principles of participation, informed consent (for example, the consulted communities and individuals should have full information about the purposes of the data collection) and self-identification (for example, individuals should be able to identify themselves as members of a minority or indigenous people, rather than the State’s authorities determining such membership). Consultations with relevant stakeholders brought forward the suggestion that civil society organizations with relevant expertise could engage in data collection exercises at community level. This could not only contribute to reducing the cost of data collection but also empower communities to participate in informing development policies at the local level. States need to seek innovative approaches to bridge capacity gaps in data collection, including by encouraging communities themselves, with the engagement of civil society organizations and academic bodies, to perform data collection as a complement rather than a substitute to that done by the State, which retains the primary responsibility for such function. In this regard, civil society should work closely with national statistical institutes for capacity-building purposes. States could also adopt mixed approaches to data collection, in order to capitalize on existing resources. This could include the use of mass media and communication tools as resources and building networks of opinion leaders (e.g. traditional/religious leaders and women leaders), while ensuring the inclusion and active participation of disadvantaged groups, such as indigenous peoples, forest communities and nomadic communities, in compliance with human rights principles governing data protection and safeguards. 64. Another crucial question in leaving no one behind is to identify, acknowledge and address the root causes of inequality and discrimination. Only when we know why some groups or countries are left behind, can we develop appropriate polices and strategies. Understanding how various forms of discrimination intersect is key in this regard. States should support independent critical research, conduct comparative studies, resorting to both qualitative and quantitative methods. The collection of disaggregated data is crucial to realizing the right to development and national statistics agencies need to be properly equipped to collect it by developing capacity to use qualitative and quantitative human rights indicators when analysing inequalities. Furthermore, States should systematically and coherently assess their progress towards implementing Sustainable Development Goals 10 and 5 and other targets related to progressing towards equality in their voluntary national reviews. 18