A/RES/54/139 Page 3 7. Strongly encourages heads of departments and offices who have not yet organized such training to do so by the end of the next biennium; 8. Calls upon the Secretary-General to implement fully and to monitor the strategic plan of action for the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (1995–2000)4 in order to make notable progress towards the goal of 50/50 gender distribution by the end of the year 2000, especially at the D–1 level and above; 9. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that individual managers are held accountable for implementing the strategic plan within their areas of responsibility; 10. Encourages the Secretary-General to appoint more women as special representatives and envoys and to pursue good offices on his behalf, especially in matters related to peacekeeping, peace-building, preventive diplomacy and economic and social development, and in operational activities, including as resident coordinators, as well as to appoint more women to other high-level positions; 11. Welcomes the inclusion of the objective of improving gender balance in action plans on human resources management for individual departments and offices, and encourages cooperation between the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women and the Office of Human Resources Management of the Secretariat in the further elaboration and monitoring of these plans, which will include concrete strategies and specific targets for improving women’s representation in each department and office; 12. Requests the Secretary-General to monitor closely the progress made by departments and offices in meeting the goal of gender balance and to ensure that the appointment and promotion of suitably qualified women will be no less than 50 per cent of all appointments and promotions until the goal of 50/50 gender distribution is met, including through full implementation of the special measures for women and the development of mechanisms to encourage, monitor and assess effectively the performance of programme managers in meeting targets for improving women’s representation; 13. Takes note of the revised terms of reference of the Steering Committee for the Improvement of the Status of Women in the Secretariat issued by the Secretary-General in June 1999,5 in particular its role in monitoring the implementation of the special measures for the achievement of gender balance; 14. Requests the Secretary-General to develop innovative recruitment strategies to identify and attract suitably qualified women candidates, in particular in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, in other Member States that are unrepresented or under-represented in the Secretariat and in occupations in which women are under-represented; 15. Also requests the Secretary-General to continue his work to create within existing resources a gender-sensitive work environment supportive of the needs of his staff, both women and men, including through the development of policies for flexible working time, flexible workplace arrangements and childcare and elder-care needs, as well as through the provision of more comprehensive information to prospective 4 A/49/587 and Corr.1, sect. IV. 5 ST/SGB/1999/9, sect. 2. /...