New Partnership for Africa’s Development: progress in implementation and international support A/RES/71/320 13. Reaffirms that achieving gender equality, empowering all women and girls, and the full realization of their human rights are essential to achieving sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth and sustainable developm ent, reiterates the need for gender mainstreaming, including targeted actions and investments in the formulation and implementation of all financial, economic, environmental and social policies, and recommits to adopting and strengthening sound policies and enforceable legislation and transformative actions for the promotion of gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment at all levels, to ensure women’s equal rights, access and opportunities for participation and leadership in the economy and to eliminate gender-based violence and discrimination in all its forms; 14. Welcomes the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods and the Declaration on Nutrition Security for Inclusive Economic Growth and Sustainable Development in Africa, adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union at its twenty-third ordinary session, and further welcomes the African Union strategy and road map for facilitating the realization of the 2014 Malabo Commitments on Agriculture, launched during the twenty-fourth ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, in January 2015; 15. Expresses concern about the adverse impact of the continuing fragility and slowdown of global growth and trade, including on development, cognizant that the global economy remains in a challenging phase, with many downside risks, including capital outflows from some emerging and developing economies, continued low commodity prices, high unemployment, particularly among young people, and rising private and public indebtedness in many developing countries, and stresses the need for continuing efforts to address systemic fragi lities and imbalances and to reform and strengthen the international financial system while implementing the reforms agreed upon to date, to address these challenges and to make progress towards sustaining global demand; 16. Recognizes that the effects of the world financial and economic crisis have the potential to undermine the progress made towards achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals, and threaten debt sustainability in many countries, esp ecially developing countries, also recognizes that, while global growth is returning, there is a need to further strengthen the recovery, which is still uneven, stresses the urgent need for full recovery and sustained and accelerated growth, and reaffirms the need to continue to support the special needs of Africa and to take action to mitigate the multidimensional impacts of the crisis on the continent; 17. Expresses concern about the increasing challenges posed by climate change, drought, land degradation, desertification, the loss of biodiversity and floods, and their negative consequences for the fight against poverty and hunger, which could pose serious additional challenges to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in Africa; 18. Expresses its grave concern about the serious risk of famine and the spread of epidemic diseases that significantly harm development efforts in some African countries, and underlines the need for urgent action to be taken to alleviate the suffering experienced in those countries; 5/13