A/RES/58/269 budgeting” 3 and the reports of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions thereon, 4 Taking into account the views expressed by the Member States during the consideration of this item at its fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth sessions, 1. Welcomes the commitment of the Secretary-General to strengthening the United Nations, including its planning, programming and budgetary process; 2. Stresses that setting the priorities of the United Nations is the prerogative of the Member States, as reflected in legislative mandates; 3. Stresses also the need for the Member States to participate fully in the budget preparation process, from its early stages and throughout the process; 4. Emphasizes the importance of providing the information necessary to enable Member States to make well-informed decisions; 5. Requests the Secretary-General to prepare, on a trial basis, for submission to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session, a strategic framework to replace the current four-year medium-term plan, which would comprise in one document: (a) Part one: a plan outline, reflecting the longer-term objectives of the Organization; (b) Part two: a biennial programme plan, to cover two years; 6. Decides that: (a) The budget outline shall continue to provide the same level of detail as at present, in accordance with regulation 3.2 of the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation; 5 (b) The budget outline shall be submitted and considered for approval after consideration and adoption of the strategic framework; (c) After their approval, the budget outline and strategic framework shall together form the basis for preparing the proposed programme budget; 7. Affirms that the strategic framework, as outlined above, shall constitute the principal policy directive of the United Nations and shall serve as the basis for programme planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation; Decides to review, with a view to taking a final decision at its sixty8. second session, the format, content and duration of the strategic framework, including the necessity of maintaining part one, and requests the Secretary-General to submit a report, through the Committee for Programme and Coordination, reviewing the experiences gained with the changes made in the planning and budgeting process; Decides also that the programme narratives of the programme budget 9. fascicles shall be identical to the biennial programme plan; _______________ 3 A/58/600. A/58/7/Add.5 (for the final text, see Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 7A) and A/58/610. 5 ST/SGB/2000/8. 4 2