A/RES/S-21/2
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(e) Continue to give high priority to investments in education and training in development budgets;
(f)
Provide adequately equipped facilities by rehabilitating existing schools and building new ones.
36. The Programme of Action recognized that greater public knowledge, understanding and commitment at all
levels, from the individual to the international, are vital to the achievement of its goals and objectives. To this end,
ensuring access to and use of modern communication technology, including satellite transmission and other
communication mechanisms, should be studied and appropriate action taken as a means to address the barriers to
education in developing countries, in particular, the least developed countries, with assistance from the
international community.
F. Data systems, including indicators
37. Governments, in collaboration with research institutions and non-governmental organizations, as well as with
the assistance of the international community, including donors, should strengthen national information systems
to produce reliable statistics on a broad range of population, environment and development indicators in a timely
manner. The indicators should include, inter alia, poverty rates at the community level; women's access to social
and economic resources; enrolment and retention of girls and boys in schools; access to sexual and reproductive
health services disaggregated by population sub-groups, including indigenous people; and gender sensitivity in
sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning. In addition, in consultation with indigenous
people, Governments should establish and strengthen national statistics and data collection concerning the health
of indigenous people, including sexual and reproductive health and their determinants. All data systems should
ensure availability of age- and sex-disaggregated data, which are crucial for translating policy into strategies that
address age and gender concerns and for developing appropriate age- and gender-impact indicators for monitoring
progress. Governments should also collect and disseminate the quantitative and qualitative data needed to assess
the status of male and female reproductive health, including in urban areas, and to design, implement, monitor and
evaluate action programmes. Special attention should be given to maternal mortality and morbidity, as this database
remains inadequate. Health and reproductive health data should be disaggregated by income and poverty status
to identify the specific health profile and needs of people living in poverty and as a basis for focusing resources
and subsidies on those who need them most.
38. The United Nations system and donors should be specifically urged to strengthen the capacity of developing
countries, particularly the least developed countries, and those with economies in transition, to undertake censuses
and surveys on a regular basis so as to improve vital registration systems, and to develop innovative and
cost-effective solutions for meeting data requirements, especially for regular monitoring of the implementation of
the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development, including improved estimates of
maternal mortality.
III. GENDER EQUALITY, EQUITY AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN
A. Promotion and protection of women's human rights
39. Governments should ensure that the human rights of women and girls are respected, protected and promoted
through the development, implementation and effective enforcement of gender-sensitive policies and legislation.
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