A/CONF.171/13 English Page 91 projects that improve the welfare of individuals and families and the needy to enhance their quality, efficiency and client-sensitivity, and to increase the national and international capacity for such research; (c) To understand that sexual and reproductive behaviour occurs in varying socio-cultural contexts, and to understand the importance of that context for the design and implementation of service programmes. Actions 12.21. Governments, funding agencies and research organizations should encourage and promote socio-cultural and economic research on relevant population and development policies and programmes, including indigenous practices, especially with regard to interlinkages between population, poverty alleviation, environment, sustained economic growth and sustainable development. 12.22. Socio-cultural and economic research should be built into population and development programmes and strategies in order to provide guidance for programme managers on ways and means of reaching underserved clients and responding to their needs. To this end, programmes should provide for operations research, evaluation research and other applied social science research. This research should be participatory in character. Mechanisms should be established with a view to ensuring that research findings are incorporated into the decisionmaking process. 12.23. Policy-oriented research, at the national and international levels, should be undertaken on areas beset by population pressures, poverty, over-consumption patterns, destruction of ecosystems and degradation of resources, giving particular attention to the interactions between those factors. Research should also be done on the development and improvement of methods with regard to sustainable food production and crop and livestock systems in both developed and developing countries. 12.24. Governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations concerned, funding agencies and research organizations are urged to give priority to research on the linkages between women’s roles and status and demographic and development processes. Among the vital areas for research are changing family structures; family well-being; the interactions between women’s and men’s diverse roles, including their use of time, access to power and decision-making and control over resources; associated norms, laws, values and beliefs; and the economic and demographic outcomes of gender inequality. Women should be involved at all stages of gender research planning, and efforts should be made to recruit and train more female researchers. 12.25. Given the changing nature and extent of the spatial mobility of population, research to improve the understanding of the causes and consequences of migration and mobility, whether internal or international, is urgently needed. To provide a sound foundation for such research, special efforts need to be made to improve the quality, timeliness and accessibility of data on internal and international migration levels, trends and policies. /...