A/HRC/19/35 47. Data collected should distinguish children who have street connections within wider groups of surveyed children; be disaggregated by sex, age and ethnicity among salient characteristics; and identify the type of street connections (independence, drug use, survival, gang membership, forced labour) as well as other factors relevant to local contexts experienced by children. Research must be understood as encompassing all environments that affect street-connected children, including family and home, neighbourhood, support interventions, institutions that persecute children with street connections, policies and systems that affect, include and/or target street-connected children, national legislation and budgets designed to guarantee and enforce children‟s rights, as well as global institutions and interactions between countries. 48. Robust data collection is vital for identifying and assessing good practices. At the same time, criteria for good practice should be evident throughout data collection. For example, in the best interests of the child, data about violations of children‟s rights should be systematically collected and analysed, using a holistic approach and child-centred research methods, while findings should be used to fulfil street-connected children‟s rights. VII. Children’s voices 49. In resolution 16/12, the Council requested that the study be conducted in collaboration with children themselves. In order to bring children‟s diverse and distinctive views into the process, a number of NGOs, members of the Consortium for Street Children that runs specialized interventions with children connected to the street, were invited to facilitate children‟s participation and gather their views about their circumstances, experiences and aspirations. A total of 123 children in street situations – 29 girls and 94 boys, aged between 5 and 18 – were consulted in Ecuador, India, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Morocco. This is a relatively small number and no claims are made to represent any other than the children consulted. The facilitating NGOs have long-standing expertise in supporting street-connected children and strong child protection policies; they used an agreed participatory methodology to ensure the children‟s meaningful participation. Participation was restricted to children who were already in regular contact with the NGOs, so that a level of trust had already been developed between facilitators and the children. The consultation process included group discussion, role-play and drawing, instead of more conventional surveys or interviews. Consultation centred on three overarching themes: the child him or herself; their access to support; and access to their rights. A. The child as an individual 50. “It‟s like this: You have to sacrifice things you want for your future, like study maybe, for the future of your family. But if you ask me, I want to help others. If I am to be asked, what have you done with your life, I want to say that I‟ve helped others. The stuff you do, like giving to those who have been deprived of something, giving them some affection, things like that.” Boy in Morocco 51. In India, participants reflected that they felt proud to “always offer their services without any expectations to the weaker and desperate people,” while children in Ethiopia felt that they contribute to society by showing loyalty, serving others and respecting their elders. 52. Many children expressed pride in being able to support themselves and their families through work on the street and had developed strong connections to this work. In Ecuador, one boy reflected, “I started working when I was 5 years old and it was really difficult (...) I didn‟t want to be on the streets, I didn‟t like it, I wanted to be with my family and to be in 13