A/HRC/20/25 30. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the evolution of the BDH programme in the last three years, including the additional efforts to promote incorporation into the labour market through the Crédito Productivo Solidario (Productive Solidarity Credit), the main users of which are recipients of the BDH. 31. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges the graduation strategy of the BDH programme, and calls on Ecuador to ensure that even after families cease receiving transfers, they can enjoy at least the minimum core content of all economic, social and cultural rights, while progressively improving their situation. This entails access to a range of other social policies and programmes to ensure social inclusion and tackle poverty. 32. Information received suggests that mechanisms for the participation of beneficiaries of social programmes in their design, implementation and evaluation, as mandated by the Constitution, are still scarce, and therefore the Special Rapporteur again encourages the Government to commit human and financial resources to rectifying this. 33. The Special Rapporteur had also recommended that the Government should improve the outreach and accessibility of the programmes, taking into account groups that suffer from structural discrimination. According to information received, the Government must further strengthen its efforts in this regard, particularly in ensuring that information regarding social programmes is linguistically accessible for indigenous populations. C. Situation of people vulnerable to poverty 1. Women 34. Women suffer from structural discrimination that limits, inter alia, their participation in the workforce19 and in government. The Special Rapporteur reiterates her recommendation that the Government scale up its efforts to tackle gender discrimination in Ecuador. 35. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the initiative to facilitate analysis and the measuring of resources spent on gender equality in the State’s general budget, known as Función K: Equidad de Género (Classifier K: Gender Equity). 2. Children 36. The Special Rapporteur notes the achievement of the BDH in reducing the prevalence of child poverty and child labour. According to figures submitted by Ecuador, the percentage of children living in poverty has declined from 44.4 per cent in 2008 to 37.3 per cent in 2011, and the number of those engaged in child labour from 2.9 per cent to 1.5 per cent. The Special Rapporteur calls on Ecuador to redouble its efforts in reducing child poverty, and encourages the Government to review the operation of the BDH to ensure that the imposition of conditionalities is not resulting in the de facto exclusion of children. 3. Persons with disabilities 37. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the efforts of Ecuador in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, which include the provision of a nationwide disability pension. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the Manuela Espejo programme, which carried out a national study covering 294,000 persons with disabilities, facilitating the delivery of a monthly voucher (Joaquin Gallegos programme) to care providers, especially those who care for persons with severe disabilities. Information received indicates that a draft law on disabilities is currently being discussed in Ecuador. The Special Rapporteur calls on 19 8 See INEC, Encuesta de Empleo y Desempleo, Indicadores del Mercado Laboral, December 2011.