A/RES/54/208 Page 2 1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Commission on Human Settlements on the work of its seventeenth session;3 2. Welcomes the steps taken by the Acting Executive Director of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) to strengthen the capacity of the Centre, in particular the normative area, and to improve the linkages between the normative and operational activities of the Centre so as to enable it to exercise effectively its vital role as focal point for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda;5 3. Also welcomes the progress made by the Acting Executive Director in the revitalization of the Centre, and encourages the Executive Director to implement fully, as a matter of urgency, all administrative and financial management reforms, as part of the ongoing revitalization process; 4. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the staffing of the new organizational structure is completed as a matter of urgency in accordance with the principle of equitable geographical representation and gender balance, including, in particular, improving the status of women in the Secretariat, and bearing in mind the need for recruitment of qualified staff in accordance with the relevant United Nations regulations and rules; 5. Also requests the Secretary-General as a matter of urgency to appoint a full-time Executive Director for the Centre in accordance with resolution 53/242; 6. Takes note of the increased cooperation and collaboration between the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and the United Nations Environment Programme within the framework of their respective mandates and separate programmatic, budgetary and organizational identities with a view to improving the effectiveness of their work; 7. Stresses the importance of strengthening the United Nations Office at Nairobi as the only United Nations headquarters located in a developing country; 8. Calls upon all countries to ensure the provision of sufficient financial resources, on a stable and predictable basis, for the successful implementation of the work programme for the biennium 2000-2001, and reiterates the recognition by the Commission on Human Settlements at its seventeenth session that this implementation will require substantial additional funding and its request to the Executive Director to raise more funds from all sources and to broaden the donor base; 9. Calls upon the Secretary-General to provide the necessary resources from the regular budget to the Centre for the biennium 2000-2001 in accordance with current budgetary practices and procedures; 10. Welcomes the decision by the Economic and Social Council to discuss human settlements issues at its coordination segment in 2000 and to have as its sectoral theme the coordinated implementation by the United Nations system of the Habitat Agenda,4 and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the report submitted to the Council on the question, along with the recommendations of the Council thereon, be made available to the General Assembly for its consideration under the sub-item entitled “Implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II)”; 4 See Economic and Social Council decision 1999/281 of 30 July 1999. /...