5. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, including the elaboration of a draft optional protocol to the Convention. 6. Provisional agenda for the forty-third session of the Commission. 7. Adoption of the report of the Commission on its forty-second session. C. Matters brought to the attention of the Council 3. The attention of the Council is drawn to the text submitted by the Chairperson of the Commission on the follow-up to agreed conclusions 1996/1 of the Economic and Social Council (see chap. II, para. 178). 1. Agreed conclusions 4. The following agreed conclusions of the Commission are also brought to the attention of the Council: Agreed conclusions 1997/1. Women and the environment* 1. The recently held United Nations conferences and summits, particularly the Fourth World Conference on Women and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, have underlined that the contribution of women to economic development, social development and environmental protection, which are mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development, should be recognized and supported, and that there is need for a clear gender perspective in environmental management. Moreover, unless the contribution of women is recognized and supported, sustainable development will be an elusive goal. 2. In the five-year review and assessment of the results of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, moving beyond the concept of women as a major group, a major focus should be the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into the development and implementation of all legislation, policies and programmes, with a view to achieving gender equality, taking into account the Beijing Platform for Action13 and the results of other global conferences. 3. In designing and implementing environmental programmes and policies, including those related to the implementation of Agenda 21,14 and the Beijing Platform for Action at the national and local levels, all responsible actors should ensure that a gender perspective is fully integrated into them, through the development and application of analytical tools and methodologies for gender-based analysis. Monitoring and accountability mechanisms should be in place to assess gender mainstreaming and its impact. * For the discussion, see chap. II, paras. 152-161. 14 Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by the Conference (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and corrigendum), resolution 1, annex II. -6-