A/HRC/42/38 B. Promoting active, meaningful and informed participation 14. In the Declaration on the Right to Development it is indicated that development policies should aim at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals, on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development (art. 2). This implies a twofold set of rights and duties: first, the requirement to involve all members of the population as participants in formulating development policies and, second, the requirement that the policies benefit all people equally. 15. The present guidelines emphasize the principle that affected communities must have ownership over development agendas, budgets and processes. The recommendations address the need to ensure that all segments of society benefit from development; they also highlight visible and unseen barriers to participation, such as a lack of legal identity, the existence of violence or social restrictions. 16. In addition, the guidelines clarify that participation can only be effective if it is institutionalized and continuous. An example given from Latin America and the Caribbean region is the inclusion of a permanent “empty chair” in government bodies that could be occupied by civil society actors, thus enabling them to participate regularly in decisionmaking. Another example, from an Eastern European country, is the inclusion of key affected communities – along with representatives of governmental, non-governmental and private organizations – in a nationwide mechanism coordinating the response to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in that country. 17. The practical recommendations set out below aim at enabling all people to meaningfully participate in, and benefit from, development. National level 18. States should design and implement development projects after holding meaningful consultations to identify the development priorities of the communities in a project area and benefits-sharing arrangements that would be suitable for those affected. Specifically: (a) Consultation processes should be institutionalized rather than ad hoc, and any potential conflicts of interest among those convening the consultations should be addressed in order to ensure that the consultations truly reflect the viewpoints of affected stakeholders (this is particularly important when consultations are convened by a State or by private actors that would benefit directly from the proposed project); (b) Those convening a consultation should transparently inform the consulted communities about the potential impacts of the decisions to be made, and the priorities of those affected must be taken into account. 19. States should institute public planning processes that are participatory and include monitoring mechanisms. Whenever possible, States should decentralize participatory planning processes, thus enabling local communities to pursue development initiatives that reflect their interests and to draw more domestic resources. 20. Governments should implement coherent national policies that are in line with local development needs in order to foster synergies and correlation among institutions. 21. States should ensure that budgeting is participatory and people-centred rather than a purely economic exercise. Governments should be open to including civil society in economic planning and reforms. In that regard, participatory budgeting should be envisaged at the local level. 22. Governments at all levels should mobilize and empower constituencies to advocate for their own development agendas. Governments should institutionalize civil society participation as part of development planning processes. This includes planning in advance and accounting for civil society participation in data-gathering and assessment exercises. 23. States should invest in building the capacity of civil society to play an active and meaningful role in development processes. Civil society should be involved formally in policy design, implementation and evaluation. Doing so would mobilize existing local 5