A/HRC/28/42 I. Introduction and methodology 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 27/20, in which the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on the technical assistance provided by his Office to support inclusive and participatory development and poverty reduction at the national level, for submission its twenty-eighth session. The present report will serve as a basis for a thematic panel discussion to be held at the twenty-eighth session of the Council under item 10 of its agenda. 2. In its resolution 27/20, the Council reaffirmed that each country must take primary responsibility for its own development, and emphasized the role of national policies and strategies in the achievement of sustainable development and poverty eradication. It encouraged States to ensure that such policies and strategies are devised and carried out in a non-discriminatory, participatory, transparent and accountable manner, in order to promote the empowerment of the poorest and most disadvantaged and the realization of their rights. It emphasized the need for States to engage with and promote free, informed and meaningful participation of all relevant stakeholders, especially in decision-making that directly affects their lives. The Council also encouraged States’ action to ensure transparency and accountability by providing accessible and adequate information. 3. The present report covers a period of five years (2009–2014), as a reasonable time frame within which incipient results can be provided. It illustrates the type of work carried out under the technical cooperation programme of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in response to requests and expressions of interest from Member States. It presents initiatives that have shown good potential in promoting inclusive and participatory policies and strategies for development and poverty reduction, in line with the priority areas identified by the Human Rights Council in resolution 27/20. The report also includes a number of joint initiatives carried out by OHCHR in cooperation with other United Nations entities. 4. The report highlights methodologies, good practices and lessons learned gathered by OHCHR in the field and at headquarters. Reference is also made to the OHCHR report on technical assistance and capacity-building options for integrating human rights into national policies (A/HRC/27/41), which provides an overview of technical assistance and capacitybuilding options for integrating human rights into national policies and includes some examples with regard to strengthening participation and social inclusion, which are developed further in the present report. II. Human rights-based framework for technical cooperation, development and poverty reduction 5. Lack of economic resources is seldom the only or even the most decisive cause of poverty, marginalization and social exclusion. From a human rights perspective, poverty is understood as the denial of a person’s capacity to realize and enjoy a range of key rights, such as the rights to food, health, education, security, access to justice and political participation. International human rights law also calls for more than mere equality of opportunity without regard to the underlying structures that perpetuate inequality, social exclusion and poverty. What is required under the international human rights framework in order to achieve de facto equality for all is the dismantling of barriers to social, economic and political freedoms, and the establishment of special measures to end discrimination. 3