A/HRC/33/24 and reproductive health-care services. The Committee has also taken up the technical guidance in its recommendations to State parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including on the Gambia (E/C.12/GMB/CO/1, para. 27), Nepal (E/C.12/NPL/CO/3, para. 26), Paraguay (E/C.12/PRY/CO/4, para. 29) and Tajikistan (E/C.12/TJK/CO/2-3, para. 31). 10. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has incorporated the technical guidance into its concluding observations on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CEDAW/C/VEN/CO/7-8, para. 31). The Committee on the Rights of the Child has referred to it in its conclusions on Colombia (CRC/C/COL/CO/4-5, para. 40 (c)), the Dominican Republic (CRC/C/DOM/CO/3-5, para. 52 (b)), Eritrea (CRC/C/ERI/CO/4, para. 56 (g)), the United Republic of Tanzania (CRC/C/TZA/CO/3-5, para. 59 (f)) and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CRC/C/VEN/CO/3-5, para. 57 (c)). III. Utilization of the technical guidance A. National-level multi-stakeholder processes 11. Following the Council’s call to apply the technical guidance, OHCHR has been working with partners in selected countries to facilitate multi-stakeholder processes on sexual, reproductive, maternal and child health. That work has built on a regional workshop held in Malawi in November 2013, where national stakeholders from Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania came together to build a common understanding about rights-based approaches and identify opportunities to apply the technical guidance at the national level. 12. Human rights assessments have since been undertaken and multi-stakeholder dialogues convened to discuss the assessments in Uganda (in 2014), Malawi (in 2015) and the United Republic of Tanzania (in 2016). In Zambia, a multi-stakeholder dialogue was convened in 2015. Those dialogues have triggered practical actions to support the application of rights-based approaches. The three processes profiled below provide an overview of how such initiatives may start or deepen discussions on some of the major challenges at the national level.7 Critically, the entry point provided by the utilization of the technical guidance built upon pre-existing initiatives related to health and human rights in all three countries. 13. A key outcome of these processes, as reported by relevant stakeholders in interviews, was a strengthened or newly built multi-stakeholder process on the application of a human rights-based approach to sexual, reproductive, maternal and child health. Crucially, actors outside the health sector were involved in planning and implementation in this area and health-sector actors developed enhanced understanding about human rights and their significance to health-related processes. 14. It was also emphasized that the processes had enhanced public and multisectoral participation in planning, strengthened accountability and pushed stakeholders to look beyond a purely biomedical approach in order to address inequalities and root causes of impediments to sexual, reproductive, maternal and child health. 15. In Malawi, the human rights assessment, led by the Ministry of Health, OHCHR, UNFPA, WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations 7 The United Republic of Tanzania is not profiled here because the dialogue only occurred in May 2016. 5