E/2005/27 E/CN.6/2005/11 Acknowledging that enhancing women’s opportunities, potential and activities requires a dual focus, namely, programmes aimed at meeting the basic needs and the specific needs of women for capacity-building, organizational development and empowerment, together with gender mainstreaming in all programme formulation and implementation activities, Reaffirming that gender mainstreaming is a globally accepted strategy for promoting women’s empowerment and achieving gender equality by transforming structures of inequality, making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is eliminated, Reaffirming also that gender mainstreaming constitutes a critical strategy in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, Reaffirming further the United Nations Millennium Declaration37 and its call for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, Recognizing that further efforts are necessary for gender mainstreaming to be fully implemented, Recognizing also that the full and effective implementation of gender mainstreaming requires adequate human and financial resources, Recognizing further that when implementing gender mainstreaming, the diversity of women’s efforts, needs and circumstances must be taken into account, Recognizing that strong and effective national machineries for the advancement of women and institutional mechanisms play a central role in coordinating and promoting a gender mainstreaming strategy and that gender-based statistics, indicators, research, gender analysis and other tools, training and methodologies are critical to effective gender mainstreaming, Recalling its agreed conclusions 1999/2 on institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women,38 1. Reiterates that gender mainstreaming is a tool for effective policymaking at all levels and not a substitute for targeted, women-specific policies and programmes, equality legislation, national machineries for the advancement of women and the establishment of gender focal points; 2. Stresses that, in order to ensure the effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action39 and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly36 and enhance the work for the advancement of women at the national, subregional, regional and international levels, Governments, the United Nations system and all other relevant organizations should strengthen their efforts to promote an active and visible policy of __________________ 37 38 39 16 See General Assembly resolution 55/2. Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1999, Supplement No. 1 (E/1999/99), resolution 1999/17. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II.