Council at its substantive session of 2000 in order to provide guidance to the medium-term plans of the individual organizations of the United Nations system, and that the draft of the proposal be submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-fourth session for comment. Annex COMMENTS OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN ON THE PROPOSED SYSTEM-WIDE MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN, 1996-2001* I. GENERAL COMMENTS 1. The system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women, 1996-2001 needs to be more than a compilation of what the organizations of the United Nations system are doing. 2. More emphasis should be given to coordination and collaboration between different organizations and actors. 3. The concept of visible mainstreaming should be better reflected in the indicative planning of the system. 4. In many cases, although multiple actors are identified under actions to be taken, the list of actors under different critical areas of concern should not be exclusive; the possibility of identifying lead agencies should be explored. 5. More emphasis should be placed on policy coordination and the implementation of policies and guidance by establishing a real bridge between research and analysis, function and operational activities. 6. The United Nations Secretariat as a whole should undertake activities in the critical areas of concern - not only those entities that have a specific mandate on the advancement of women and the operational agencies. Certain entities of the Secretariat, such as the Executive Office of the SecretaryGeneral, the Department of Political Affairs, the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, the Office of Legal Affairs and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, are not included in these activities. As another example, the Joint and Co-sponsored United Nations Programme on Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome needs to be better reflected in the system-wide medium-term plan. 7. A more strategic orientation on the mainstreaming of a gender perspective within the work of the United Nations is needed. 8. The system-wide medium-term plan should have more focus on outputs and results to be achieved. * The proposed system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women, 1996-2001 was before the Commission in document E/CN.6/1996/CRP.2. -40-