E/2005/27 E/CN.6/2005/11 mainstreaming a gender perspective, inter alia, in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all policies and programmes; 3. Also stresses that political will and commitment at all levels are crucial to ensure the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the adoption and implementation of comprehensive and action-oriented policies in all areas; 4. Welcomes: (a) The wide acknowledgement of gender mainstreaming, the goal of which is to incorporate a gender perspective in all legislation, policies, programmes and projects, as a strategy to enhance the impact of policies to promote gender equality; (b) The establishment or strengthening of national machineries for the advancement of women, the recognition of those machineries as the institutional base, acting as catalysts for the promotion of gender equality, gender mainstreaming and monitoring of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, and progress achieved in terms of the visibility, status, outreach and coordination of the activities of these machineries; (c) The important catalytic role that these national machineries have played in assisting different ministries and agencies to address gender concerns in their policies and programmes; (d) The contribution of these machineries to the development of human resources in the field of gender studies and to the growing efforts for the generation and dissemination of data disaggregated by sex and age and gender-sensitive research and documentation; 5. Recognizes that in a number of countries inadequate financial and human resources and a lack of political will and commitment hinder the activities of national machineries for the advancement of women and that this is further exacerbated by an insufficient understanding of gender equality and gender mainstreaming among government structures, a lack of gender statistics and data disaggregated by sex and age and in many areas insufficiently applied methods for assessing progress, in addition to a paucity of authority and insufficient links to civil society; 6. Calls upon Member States to: (a) Involve women in decision-making at all levels in order to ensure that women’s concerns and experiences are fully reflected in policy and programme design and implementation; (b) Ensure that gender mainstreaming is fully understood, institutionalized and implemented and that these efforts should include promoting awareness and understanding of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly; (c) Increase understanding of gender mainstreaming as a strategy in support of gender equality by systematically analysing and responding to the major reasons why men and women may be affected differently by the processes of economic and social transition and structural transformation of the economy, including globalization; 17