Finally, the ongoing challenges of a lack of human and financial resources, as well as a lack of adequate data and research methodologies, limit the capacity of governments to design policies that could serve to build an intercultural health system. Efforts that codify, protect and advance the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, particularly indigenous women, will therefore also have positive health impacts. Furthermore, there must be ongoing integration of the perspectives and needs of indigenous peoples into global health programmes, plans, projects and policies, including initiatives to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. In order to design more effective health policies, there must also be concerted efforts to create improved systems of data collection and research methodology, including research into traditional medicine that incorporate the participation of indigenous communities and reflect cultural and social considerations relating to the health of those communities.