A/RES/59/250 Nations development system, in particular its funds and programmes, and wherever possible, to contribute on a multi-year basis; 19. Urges developed countries that have not yet done so to make concrete efforts to reach the targets of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product as official development assistance to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of their gross national product to least developed countries, as reconfirmed at the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries, held in Brussels from 14 to 20 May 2001, 4 encourages developing countries to build on progress achieved in ensuring that official development assistance is used effectively to help to achieve development goals and targets, acknowledges the efforts of all donors, commends those donors whose official development assistance contributions exceed, reach or are increasing towards the targets, and underlines the importance of undertaking to examine the means and time frames for achieving the targets and goals; 5 20. Notes the increase in non-core resources as a mechanism to supplement the means of operational activities for development of the United Nations system, which contributes to an increase in total resources, while recognizing that non-core resources are not a substitute for core resources and that unearmarked contributions are vital for the coherence and harmonization of the operational activities for development; 21. Invites the governing bodies of all organizations of the United Nations development system to address systematically the funding of their operational activities and to explore, within the context of their multi-year planning and related financial frameworks, where appropriate, additional sources of financial support and alternative funding modalities so as to secure, on a predictable, continuous and sustained basis, the critical mass of resources required to ensure adequate functioning and pursuit of long-term development objectives; 22. Requests the Secretary-General to improve his annual statistical compendium to the operational activities segment of the Economic and Social Council by adding a multi-year perspective, fully incorporating available information and statistics; 23. Requests the Economic and Social Council to undertake triennially, as of 2006, a comprehensive review of trends and perspectives in funding for development cooperation; 24. Requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with Member States, to explore various funding options for increasing financing for operational activities for development of the United Nations system and to examine ways to enhance the predictability, long-term stability, reliability and adequacy of funding for the operational activities for development, including through the identification of possible new funding sources, as a follow-up to his report, 6 while preserving the advantages of the current funding modalities, and to submit a report to the General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council at its substantive session in 2005; _______________ 4 See A/CONF.191/13. See paragraph 42 of the Monterrey Consensus (see Report of the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, 18–22 March 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.II.A.7), annex). 6 A/59/387. 5 5