A/HRC/6/15 page 14 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). This right builds on the principle of the participation of indigenous peoples in development projects and programmes managed by non-indigenous entities, affirming the additional principle that indigenous peoples themselves must play a role in their own development. 37. In Latin America, for example, the State reform and decentralization processes have led to the emergence of indigenous policymakers, who have started to participate in State decision-making structures, especially at the local level. In Ecuador, indigenous leaders have been elected to such positions as mayor of Cotacachi in 1996 and governor of the Cotopaxi province in 2000, subsequent to the mobilization of indigenous organizations. This has also given local authorities the chance to make changes to territorial government institutions, creating new opportunities among indigenous communities for access to and the distribution, control and use of resources for development. A similar case is that of the Tirúa, in southern Chile, where, in 1996, an indigenous person was elected as mayor, the first such appointment in the country’s democratic history. Since then, the Mapuche-Lafkenche communities have benefited from access to local government on three levels: first, by channelling more resources to indigenous communities, to improve infrastructure and basic services in particular; second, by devising innovative ways to promote their participation in community development planning; and third, by creating new networks which include a variety of national and international development agencies, and in which the municipality plays the role of facilitator and adviser. 38. Other significant experiences of autonomy and self-management for the development of indigenous peoples include moves by indigenous peoples and communities to take direct responsibility for the management of State policies. For example, the union of municipal authorities of Zoogocho sector in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca (Mexico), established in 1991, brings together 21 Zapotec communities; this intercommunity organization, based on customary law, conducts activities to promote cultural values, to improve infrastructure and education and health services, and to boost agricultural and livestock production. Most of the costs arising from those activities are covered by the respective sectoral authorities or, in the case of major projects, from State and federal funds. 39. In the area of education, one positive self-management experience is the programme for the training of bilingual teachers in Peruvian Amazonia (FORMABIAP), an initiative carried out jointly with the Interethnic Association of Peruvian Amazonia (AIDESEP), and the Ministry of Education of Peru. The aim of this programme is to introduce bilingual and intercultural education in indigenous communities by developing teaching materials and school curricula, and training bilingual indigenous teachers. Since its creation in 1988, the programme has successfully trained more than 800 teachers from 15 different indigenous groups. The Ticuna education project in the Alto Solimões region of Brazil, launched in 1998, is similar; it has served as a model for the Ministry of Education’s initiative on national curricular references for indigenous education (RCNEI). While these projects have generated positive results, they have been difficult to incorporate into the public education system, added to which they are highly reliant on funds from international aid agencies. 40. The Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in Madhya Pradesh, India, launched in 1997, which aims to achieve the goal of universal primary education for indigenous communities and other marginalized groups from this State, is based on a three-tiered structure of cooperation among the Government of Madhya Pradesh, the local government body (Panchayat) and local