A/HRC/20/23 72. All States should monitor and regulate external lending and borrowing (as appropriate) within the private sector in order to prevent private debt burdens being created which bring financial instability and ultimately undermine the realization of human rights. C. National development strategy 73. A national development strategy should be country-owned and should contain development goals that are responsive to the needs of the people who are the ultimate beneficiaries of development. Such goals should be agreed through a meaningful and participatory consultation process involving all stakeholders, especially civil society organizations. 74. Country ownership of national development strategies is the foundation of development effectiveness. It implies that national governments should have the ability to freely choose the strategies which they design and implement, and take the lead in both policy formulation and implementation. 8 75. In particular, any economic, financial or technical advice, instruction guidance or similar recommendation by external actors, particularly by international financial institutions, which are meant to address the problems occasioned by external indebtedness, must respect the debtor State’s independent process of national development as defined in Section II. 76. Any such economic, financial or technical advice, instruction, guidance or similar recommendation should be accorded lesser weight or importance by a debtor State if it contravenes the main development goals prioritized and agreed during the consultation process referred to in section III (A). 77. Creditors should not make loans or debt relief conditional on the implementation of policies such as privatization, equitization, trade liberalization, investment deregulation or financial sector liberalization. 78. Any such economic, financial or technical advice, instruction, guidance or similar recommendation should be exclusively aimed towards restoring a debtor State’s economic viability and growth, and thus its ability to repay its external debts without sacrificing its ability to perform its international human rights obligations. Other objectives that are remotely or tangentially connected with this aim should be avoided. 79. States should ensure that the implementation of the policies mentioned in paragraph 74 above does not impair the realization of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, in debtor States. Whenever such policies are deemed necessary by a debtor State, adequate social security measures to mitigate the adverse impact thereof, especially on vulnerable or marginalized groups, must be put in place. 80. Creditor States and the international financial institutions must not take advantage of an economic, financial or external debt-related crisis as an opportunity to push for structural reforms in debtor States, however useful such reforms might be perceived to be in the long term. Such reforms should be initiated, formulated and implemented by the debtor States themselves, if they deem appropriate, in pursuance of an independent process of national development. 8 The United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development underscores the importance of country ownership: “States have the primary responsibility for the creation of national and international conditions favourable to the realization of the right to development.” General Assembly resolution. 41/128, annex, art. 3(1). 19