A/RES/53/198 Page 3 6. Recognizes that the process of globalization brings with it opportunities but also poses new challenges, in particular for the developing countries and the least developed among them, in their efforts to eradicate poverty; 7. Recognizes also the importance of appropriate policy responses to the challenges of globalization at the national level, in particular by pursuing sound and stable domestic policies, including, inter alia, sound macroeconomic and social policies, so as to realize the objective of the eradication of poverty; 8. Calls for continued action by the international community to create an enabling economic environment and to assist developing countries further in their efforts to combat the negative impact of globalization, to fight marginalization and to pursue their development; 9. Reaffirms that all Governments and the United Nations system, in particular the relevant funds, programmes and agencies, should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective and use gender analysis as a tool for the integration of a gender dimension into the planning and implementation of policies, strategies and programmes on the eradication of poverty; 10. Emphasizes that, in developing countries, rural development remains central to efforts to eradicate poverty and that this often includes agrarian reform, investment in infrastructure, extension of rural financial intermediation, measures to ensure food security, the provision of better education, greater utilization of appropriate technology, fair prices to provide incentives for agricultural investment and increased productivity, including productivity in the informal sector; 11. Emphasizes also that, in all countries, urban poverty should be addressed, inter alia, by promoting sustainable livelihoods for people living in urban poverty through the provision or expansion of access to training, education and other employment assistance services, in particular for women, youth, the unemployed and the underemployed; 12. Welcomes the fact that a considerable number of countries have formulated plans and programmes to fight poverty, and in this context notes the efforts made to achieve the target of reducing by one half, by 2015, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, and invites all Governments that have not yet done so to formulate or strengthen integrated poverty eradication policies and implement national poverty eradication plans or programmes, in a participatory manner, in order to address the structural cause of poverty, encompassing action at the local, national, subregional, regional and international levels, and stresses that those plans or programmes should establish, taking into account specific national circumstances, strategies, including affordable time-bound goals and targets, for the substantial reduction of overall poverty and the eradication of absolute poverty; 13. Calls upon the developed countries to strengthen their efforts to achieve, as soon as possible, the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for overall official development assistance and, where agreed, within that target, to earmark 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of gross national product for the least developed countries; 14. Calls upon the international community, including multilateral financial institutions, to implement fully and effectively all initiatives taken regarding debt relief for developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, and thus support their efforts to eradicate poverty; /...