A/HRC/10/5 page 14 A. Improving the contribution of international aid to the realization of the right to food: the role of national strategies 27. The current reform process of international aid is based on the principles of ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for results, and mutual evaluation, which are made explicit in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. An explicit endorsement of a human rights framework for the implementation of these principles could make them more concrete and operational. At a general level, human rights-based approaches to development cooperation recognize people “as key actors in their own development, rather than passive recipients of commodities and services”: they emphasize participation as both a means and a goal; they seek to empower, and thus should combine top-down and bottom-up approaches; both outcomes and processes should be monitored and evaluated, following the adoption of measurable goals and targets in programming; all stakeholders should be involved in analysis; and the programmes should focus on marginalized, disadvantaged, and excluded groups, and aim at reducing disparity.39 The human right to adequate food in particular should be guiding countries’ choices of development strategies, and provide an objective benchmark to evaluate the effectiveness of development efforts, thus improving the accountability of both donors and partners. 28. Specifically, the implementation of the principles of national ownership and alignment would be greatly facilitated if the recipient State were to define its national priorities according to a national strategy for the realization of the right to food, whether it is formally integrated into broader poverty-reduction strategy documents or not. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has insisted on the need for States to work towards the adoption of a national strategy to ensure food and nutrition security for all, based on human rights principles that define the objectives, and the formulation of policies and corresponding benchmarks (E/C.12/1999/5, para. 21). Guideline 3 of the FAO Guidelines provides useful indications about how States could adopt a national human rights-based strategy for the realization of the right to adequate food, emphasizing in particular the need to allow for monitoring of progress and accountability, and to develop such strategies through participatory processes. 29. One of the commitments of the States adhering to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness is to enhance partner countries’ accountability to their citizens and parliaments for their development policies, strategies and performance (paras. 3 (iii), and 14). This objective has been further reaffirmed by the Accra Summit on Aid Effectiveness of 2-4 September 200840 and in the 2008 Doha Declaration on Financing for Development.41 The elaboration, through participatory processes, of a national strategy for the realization of the right to food provides a concrete means to improve the accountability of national governments and their responsiveness to the needs of their populations. The Accra Agenda for Action provides that developing 39 United Nations Development Group, The Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation - Towards a Common Understanding Among UN Agencies (2003); see www.undg.org/?P=221. 40 Accra Agenda for Action, para. 13 (b). 41 A/CONF.212/L.1/Rev.1, para. 46.