A/HRC/45/44/Add.2 offered by the public administration has limited growth, trade and welfare at every level in the Afrodescendent community.10 23. Systemic racism plays a key role in the denial of public administration, goods and services to Afro-Peruvians. The national survey conducted in 2017 on perceptions of cultural diversity in Peru found that while 60 per cent of Peruvians believed that racial discrimination against Afro-Peruvian persons existed, only 8 per cent of them saw themselves as racist or perpetuating racism. Afro-Peruvians reported manifestations of racial discrimination particularly when they were seeking access to public services, such as health-care centres, schools and the police. 24. Private sector employers have taken advantage of the desperation felt in these communities, while Afro-Peruvians themselves report cases of exploitation in the private sector and denounce the lack of recourse for extreme exploitation by agribusiness employers. Without any meaningful access to alternative employment or education, Afro-Peruvians often tolerate shocking living and working conditions at the hands of agribusiness, including unconscionable contracts that lease land on terms asymmetrical to payment (including inconsistent currencies) for the produce that the land eventually yields. In addition, AfroPeruvians have been largely ignored in discussions on development, sometimes openly deprioritized in favour of the indigenous population. 25. This is particularly important for Afro-Peruvians living and working in areas where agribusiness, and oil and hydroelectric production by Peruvian and international companies are prominent. For example, some exploitative practices adopted by agribusiness and hydroelectric companies, including using state-of-the-art technology to dig much deeper wells in areas with water scarcity, and using shallow community wells of water, results in the denial of access to safe drinking water for Afro-Peruvians. Similarly, the development of natural gas pipelines has a direct impact on Afro-Peruvian livelihoods in fishing areas. These projects were nonetheless approved without any consultation with or compensation for the Afro-Peruvian communities affected, regardless of the fact that they have lived on these lands for centuries. In some cases, environmental impact statements refer to Afro-Peruvian traditions of music, dance and food without any acknowledgement or assessment of how water rights and the basic needs of Afro-Peruvian communities will be affected. 26. The National Development Plan for the Afro-Peruvian Population was intended to be a comprehensive, cross-cutting project to coordinate public management and the promotion of human rights for Afro-Peruvians. The Office of the Ombudsperson reported concerns at the Plan’s design, which lacked adequate baselines, and its implementation. 27. The disregard to which Afro-Peruvians are subject in their access to public administration, goods and services was reflected by the approach taken by the State in the implementation of the National Development Plan. The lack of interest shown by government ministries in the Plan was manifest as a lack of political will; indeed, only eight of 19 ministries agreed to implement it. As the Ombudsperson reported, the Ministries of Health, Labour and Education failed to designate a vice-ministry or division to implement the Plan or to promulgate related regulations. Other ministries, like the Ministry for Development and Social Inclusion, did not participate in the Plan at all, and failed to collect or disaggregate data to evaluate the impact of social policy on the Afro-descendent population. This specific exclusion, recognized at the national level by the Ombudsperson, was also mentioned by Afro-Peruvians in El Carmen, where the Working Group travelled down unpaved roads to meet with civil society representatives in a community that lacked running water and infrastructure. No ministry explained or justified its inaction in this regard. 28. In its evaluation, the Office of the Ombudsperson noted the limitations of mainstreaming an intercultural approach, which was mostly focused on indigenous peoples, not Afro-Peruvians. These included the lack of data on the socioeconomic status of the AfroPeruvian population; the lack of a budget for the implementation of the National Development Plan; the absence of an adequate monitoring and evaluation system; and the lack of capacity of regional governments. The efforts made by the Ministry of Culture lacked 10 6 Jean-Marc Fournier, “The Positive Effect of Public Investment on Potential Growth”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1347.