A/HRC/45/22 framework, the Joint Human Rights Office facilitated the sharing of good practices between the ministry and the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section of OHCHR in October 2019. 86. The OHCHR office in Uganda participated in an event from 26 to 28 August 2019, organized by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat to contribute to the development of an affirmative action plan on the rights of indigenous peoples, an initiative led by the Ministry on Gender, Labour and Social Development. The event brought together 23 members of the newly established national indigenous peoples committee. The latter includes 10 indigenous representatives of the Batwa, Benet, Ik, Karamojong and Tepeth peoples, as well as representatives of the Office of the Prime Minister and a number of government ministries. At the meeting, the committee members decided on terms of reference, methods of work and the thematic foci of the affirmative action plan. III. Participation of indigenous peoples in United Nations processes 87. From 24 June to 19 July 2019, the annual OHCHR Indigenous Fellowship Programme, the most comprehensive training initiative within the United Nations system specifically designed for indigenous peoples, was held in four linguistic components (English, French, Russian and Spanish). Thirty-five fellows (18 women and 17 men) from 28 countries and one senior fellow participated in the programme. For the Russian and Spanish linguistic components, the programme began with a preparatory course at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia in Moscow and at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain, respectively. Several United Nations entities, including ILO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the World Intellectual Property Organization, were involved in the programme. 88. The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples continued to be instrumental in ensuring that the voices of indigenous peoples were heard within the United Nations system. During the reporting period, the Fund provided support for 45 participants in the eighteenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 45 participants in the twelfth session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 40 grants to attend meetings of the human rights treaty bodies, the Human Rights Council and the universal periodic review and 14 grants for participation in a consultation on measures to enhance the participation of representatives and institutions of indigenous peoples in relevant United Nations meetings on issues affecting them. In addition, the Fund also provides capacity-building and training to its grantees, ensures their constructive participation in United Nations meetings and contributes to strengthening and supporting their work when they return home. 89. In its resolution 74/135, the General Assembly expanded the mandate of the Fund, enabling the participation of indigenous peoples in the Forum of Business and Human Rights and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in addition to other meetings under its mandate. 90. OHCHR, together with UN-Women, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and ILO, participated in a two-day meeting of the African Commission Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa, held on the margins of the sixty-fifth session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The meeting discussed enhanced cooperation with the Working Group and yielded results that included the establishment of a steering committee on indigenous peoples of Africa. The steering committee is a subsidiary of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues and its focus is aimed at implementing the Secretary-General’s system-wide action plan for ensuring a coherent approach to achieving the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Africa, under the leadership of the Working Group and in close partnership with indigenous peoples’ organizations, through greater engagement with United Nations country teams and meaningful contributions to the ongoing design of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. 14