A/RES/55/69 (c) The actions agreed upon by the General Assembly at its twenty-third special session, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, to ensure the full and equal participation of women at all levels of decision-making in the United Nations system; 7 (d) The inclusion of the objective of improving gender balance in action plans on human resources management for individual departments and offices, and encourages further cooperation between heads of departments and offices, the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women and the Office of Human Resources Management of the Secretariat in the implementation of these plans, which include specific targets and strategies for improving the representation of women in individual departments; (e) The designation of focal points for women in United Nations peacekeeping operations, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the focal points are designated at a sufficiently high level and enjoy full access to senior management in the mission area; (f) The continued provision of specific training programmes on gender mainstreaming and gender issues in the workplace, tailored to meet the special needs of individual departments, commends those heads of departments and offices who have launched gender training for their managers and staff, and strongly encourages those who have not yet organized such training to do so by the end of the biennium; 4. Regrets that the goal of 50/50 gender distribution will not be met by the end of the year 2000, and urges the Secretary-General to redouble his efforts to realize significant progress towards this goal in the near future; 5. Expresses concern that, in five departments and offices of the Secretariat, women still account for less than 30 per cent of staff, and encourages the SecretaryGeneral to intensify his efforts to meet the goal of gender balance within all departments and offices of the Secretariat; 6. Requests the Secretary-General, in order, inter alia, to achieve the goal of 50/50 gender distribution with full respect for the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter: (a) To identify and attract suitably qualified women candidates, in particular in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, in other Member States that are unrepresented or under-represented in the Secretariat and in occupations in which women are under-represented; (b) To continue to monitor closely the progress made by departments and offices in meeting the goal of gender balance and to ensure that the appointment and promotion of suitably qualified women will be no less than 50 per cent of all appointments and promotions until the goal of 50/50 gender distribution is met, inter alia, through full implementation of the special measures for women and the further development of monitoring and assessment mechanisms to meet targets for improving women’s representation; (c) To enable the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women to monitor effectively and facilitate progress in the implementation of the departmental action plans for the achievement of gender 7 Resolution S-23/3, annex. 3