A/HRC/45/29 21. The studies should not be limited to desk research, but involve country visits and meetings with relevant United Nations organs, specialized agencies and international financial institutions, including the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as regional organizations. There was also a need to engage with stakeholders, such as during the annual sessions or through questionnaires and online consultations. 22. Bearing in mind a number of considerations, including the modality, method and time required for the preparation of the studies and their expected shelf life, the Expert Mechanism agreed on the list of studies outlined below. 23. The first thematic study would be on operationalizing the right to development in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on the targets incorporated as means of implementation. It was acknowledged in the 2030 Agenda that the means of implementation were key to its realization. While it was recognized that each country had primary responsibility for its own economic and social development, the 2030 Agenda also set out, through the means of implementation, a framework for a revitalized Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. Progress on all the Sustainable Development Goals was therefore directly proportional to progress on the means of implementation. However, according to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, progress in the first four years had not been on track, with many targets, especially the means of implementation, in fact decelerating. That downward spiral was expected only to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The thematic study would therefore seek to provide detailed guidance to States and other stakeholders on how the right to development could be mainstreamed and operationalized in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure course correction. It would focus on the means of implementation through the normative lens of the duty of international cooperation to eliminate obstacles to sustainable development and to make advances therein. It would highlight the importance and urgency of doing so during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying global crisis. 24. The second thematic study would be on racism, racial discrimination and the right to development. Central to the right to development agenda was the elimination of historical and systemic obstacles that had impeded development in some regions of the world. As reflected in the preamble of the Declaration on the Right to Development, the obstacles to be eliminated included the massive and flagrant violations of the human rights of the peoples and individuals affected by situations such as those resulting from colonialism, neocolonialism, apartheid, all forms of racism and racial discrimination, foreign domination and occupation, aggression and threats against national sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity and threats of war. That point was reinforced in article 5 of the Declaration, in which States were enjoined to take resolute steps to eliminate the violations of the human rights of peoples affected by racism and racial discrimination. The study would examine how racism and racial prejudice had shaped the debates about the right to development, including the persistent opposition to legally binding obligations, and systemic and institutional racism as obstacles to fulfilling provisions regarding nondiscrimination, equality of opportunity and fair distribution with respect to the right to development at both the national and the international levels. 25. The third thematic study would be on inequalities and the right to development. In the study, consideration would be given to the challenges of building back better in the context of a post-COVID-19 world, and to article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stated that every human being was entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in the Universal Declaration could be fully realized. The study would include a discussion of inequality within and between countries, taking the right to development as a starting point for the analysis, and focusing on the political economy of development, mostly in the production, distribution and redistribution of wealth. The negative sustained impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social and economic conditions of countries and populations was demanding policies and action that could struggle against old and new inequalities. Capacities to enhance universal and comprehensive social protection systems, connecting economy to social life, would be explored and proposed, taking existing good practices as a reference. The deficit 5