A/HRC/45/21 benchmarking the safeguards and due diligence frameworks of development financial institutions against the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.38 26. During the reporting period, the OHCHR treaty body capacity-building programme supported Burkina Faso, Chad, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia in establishing or strengthening national mechanisms on reporting and follow-up and drafting reports for treaty bodies. The OHCHR voluntary technical assistance trust fund to support the participation of least developed countries and small island developing States in the work of the Human Rights Council supported delegates from 32 States in 2019 and from 10 States during the Council’s forty-third session, in 2020. The fund also enabled the conduct of activities involving small island developing States in the Caribbean and the Pacific. 27. In February 2020, the OHCHR office in Uganda and partner organizations sent a letter to the national planning authority to inform the discussions regarding the third phase of the national development plan. In the letter, the authors echoed the Declaration on the Right of Development and emphasized that people should be participants, contributors and, ultimately, the beneficiaries of growth and development. They called for development efforts to be aligned with the recommendations issued by national, regional and international human rights mechanisms and for a specific focus on groups furthest behind, to ensure inclusive development. 28. In October and November 2019, OHCHR partnered with the International Organization of the Francophonie to organize five workshops focusing on human rights and business, with the aim of contributing to the sustainable development efforts made by the market regulatory authorities in Cameroon and Gabon. In September 2019, OHCHR organized activities in Cameroon on topics related to the right to development, including the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, human rights-based monitoring and reporting on corruption, and political participation of indigenous communities. 29. In March 2020, the Government of Guinea formally requested the support of OHCHR to initiate a pilot project on the implementation of the right to development to harness domestic capacities in accelerating and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level. The project builds on prior cooperation and focused on extractivism and climate change. Initially, OHCHR provided technical support, including through inputs to the national strategy on fighting COVID-19 and its socioeconomic impact. In May 2020, the OHCHR office in Guinea and the OHCHR Right to Development Section participated in a webinar on comparing human rights values in the East and the West in epidemic prevention and control. During the webinar, hosted by Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, OHCHR emphasized key elements of the right to development. 30. The OHCHR office in Tunisia was selected to participate in a United Nations pilot project involving Resident Coordinators and country teams in strengthening a common understanding of human rights in development. For that purpose, it held consultations, training sessions and senior management discussions with United Nations system agencies in Tunisia, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNWomen). OHCHR conducted training sessions on the right to development, economic and social rights, the human rights-based approach and the Sustainable Development Goals for officials of 18 municipalities in different regions of Tunisia. These activities aimed to support the adoption of local development plans that responded to the social, economic and environmental needs of their populations. The OHCHR office in Tunisia conducted advocacy work for the integration of human rights-related concerns in the work of the United Nations and of the Ministry of Health related to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. 31. The OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia provided extensive support for country-level work towards the achievement of the right to development. With UN-Women 38 strategy%20comments_15Jan2020.docx; www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Development/DFI/OHCHR_IDBInvestESSPsubmission.pdf. www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Development/DFI/OHCHR_Benchmarking%20Study_HRDD.pdf. 7