A/HRC/23/36 or leadership training, should be taken. It may be helpful to involve local organizations in building local organizing capacity. Facilitators can also help participants forge useful links – both horizontal links with other communities or community-based groups, and vertical links with decision-makers and relevant officials, for example in the local government. 79. Evaluation and follow-up should be collaborative. Monitoring should be undertaken by the participants themselves, based on indicators set by them according to their priorities and analysis of change. As working with people living in poverty requires a long-term process, not a one-off intervention,37 a “consultation” should never be an objective in itself, but rather should be part of an ongoing process where persons living in poverty have various possibilities to exercise their right to participation, and decision-makers should be required to seriously consider the opinions expressed. Resources should be devoted to make the participatory mechanisms long-term and self-sustaining, for instance by training and investing in grass-roots facilitators. Regular forums for dialogue between policymakers and people living in poverty should be created and promoted. VI. Recommendations to States: an operational framework to ensure meaningful participation of people living in poverty 80. People living in poverty are entitled to participate in the design, implementation and monitoring of poverty interventions and other policies, programmes and interventions that affect their lives, and to hold duty bearers accountable. Looking at participation through the prism of human rights norms and principles, it is possible to elucidate the approach and actions necessary to ensure the effective and meaningful participation of people living in poverty. 81. Building on the human rights framework above, this section will give practical guidance to States on how to operationalize the right to participation of people living in poverty. It is neither possible nor desirable to formulate detailed universal guidelines, as participation is always embedded in a specific sociocultural context and set of power dynamics. The appropriate formats and design are thus contextdependent and moreover should emerge from the ground up, in consultation with communities. However, it is important to move towards a common understanding of what an acceptably participatory mechanism or process looks like and the appropriate minimum standards by which to measure the adequacy and quality of participation with regard to people living in poverty. Human rights provide a way to do so. 82. While the recommendations below are primarily addressed to States, many are also relevant for participatory processes established by other actors such as international financial institutions and donor agencies. Recommendations to national human rights institutions are also included due to their potentially crucial role. 83. States have three levels of obligations with regard to human rights: to respect; to protect; and to fulfil (E/C.12/GC/21, para. 48). In terms of the right to participation, the obligation to respect requires States to refrain from interfering, directly or indirectly, with the enjoyment of the right. For example, States must not close down participatory spaces, impose censorship, repress public deliberation or retaliate against those who speak out (e.g. through violence, confiscation of property or incarceration). The obligation to protect requires States to take steps to prevent 37 18 X. Godinot and Q. Wodon (eds.), Participatory Approaches to Attacking Extreme Poverty, World Bank Working Paper No. 77, 2006, p. 8.