A/RES/57/167 persons and development, advancing health and well-being into old age, and ensuring enabling and supportive environments; 6. Affirms the aim of the Madrid Plan of Action, which is to ensure that persons everywhere are able to age with security and dignity and to continue to participate in their societies as citizens with full rights; 7. Recognizes that progress made in the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action should be contingent upon effective partnership among Governments, all parts of civil society and the private sector, as well as an enabling environment based, inter alia, on democracy, the rule of law, respect for all human rights, fundamental freedoms and good governance at all levels, including the national and international levels; 8. Reaffirms that enhanced international cooperation is an essential complement to national efforts to implement fully the Madrid Plan of Action, and therefore encourages the international community further to promote cooperation among all actors involved; 9. Invites international financial institutions and regional development banks to examine and adjust their lending and grants practices so as to ensure that older persons are recognized as a development resource and are taken into account in their policies and projects as part of efforts to assist developing countries and countries with economies in transition in the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action; 10. Welcomes the active participation of civil society, the private sector and other relevant actors in the Second World Assembly on Ageing and their support for the implementation of the Political Declaration and the Madrid Plan of Action, as well as the contributions made through parallel events organized by the Government of Spain, and urges relevant actors to continue research efforts in support of the Plan; 11. Requests the Secretary-General to consider the necessary measures to improve the institutional capacity of the United Nations system to fulfil its responsibilities for the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action, including, inter alia, the maintenance and strengthening of focal points on ageing in the light of the range of tasks called for in the Plan; 12. Also requests the Secretary-General, in the context of the preparation of the programme budget for the biennium 2004–2005, to allocate sufficient human and financial resources to the Programme on Ageing of the Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat so as to make it possible for the Programme efficiently and effectively to fulfil its task as the United Nations focal point on ageing and to facilitate and promote the Madrid Plan of Action by, inter alia, designing guidelines for policy development and implementation and advocating means to mainstream ageing issues into development agendas; 13. Welcomes the initiatives of the regional commissions to review the objectives and recommendations of the Madrid Plan of Action, with a view of translating it into regional plans of action, and to assist national institutions, upon request, in implementing and monitoring their actions on ageing; 14. Invites the Commission for Social Development, as the entity responsible for the follow-up to and appraisal of the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action, to consider integrating the different dimensions of population ageing as 2