10. Several representatives stressed that legal literacy programmes for women should be accompanied by training in building self-esteem, assertiveness and leadership, because empowerment would not come automatically by having knowledge but by using knowledge. It was said also that women had to make the step from having passive knowledge of their rights to being critics of the law, which was one way of gaining access to decision-making positions. 11. Several representatives and observers were alarmed that the actual economic and political crisis might lead women to lose their conferred rights and full equality. It was emphasized that equality and the recognition of women’s rights constituted an obligatory step towards democracy, and that economic and social rights could not be separated from civil and political rights. 12. Many representatives considered the issue of legal literacy to be of primary importance for equality and established a link to other issues such as women’s poverty. It was suggested that legal literacy should be included in the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women and should be discussed at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. B. Development: women in extreme poverty: integration of women’s concerns in national development planning 13. Many representatives emphasized that poverty was still a major challenge for the world community and that the development and implementation of policies and programmes for the elimination of poverty should be given top priority. The success of such policies depended heavily on joint efforts at the international, regional, national and local levels. Several representatives stated that manifestations of poverty were common not only to developing countries, but also to countries at a higher level of economic development, which had to deal with the issue in terms of social and economic policies. 14. Many representatives stated that poverty affected women and men in different ways, and women were in the majority among the poorest sections of the population. Failure to take gender into account in micro- and macro-policies continued to sustain poverty and to undermine the goals of overall development. The growing feminization of poverty was prevalent and was one of the most serious obstacles to the achievement of true equality between women and men. 15. Many representatives stressed that international as well as national development planning processes should incorporate women’s interests, and expressed concern that those processes were still very slow. Women continued to be denied productive resources and opportunities. They said that development policies, at the international, regional and national levels, should ensure the full integration of women into the mainstream of development actions throughout all the phases of policy design, formulation, implementation and evaluation. 16. Many representatives endorsed the recommendations that had been adopted by the seminar on women in extreme poverty: integration of women’s concerns in national development planning (E/CN.6/1993/3, annex), and said that all efforts to eradicate poverty must be designed on the basis of a thorough gender analysis. A number of representatives stressed that gender-sensitive planning should be followed by the well-planned mobilization and coordination of international, regional, national and local resources. It was noted that in order to incorporate women’s interests into national development policies, it was necessary to improve statistical data and its collection in a gender-sensitive way. -71-