A/RES/59/168 20 December 1993 and 57/270 B of 23 June 2003 and other relevant resolutions, constitute a three-tiered intergovernmental mechanism that plays the primary role in overall policy-making and follow-up and in coordinating the implementation and monitoring of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session; 15. Recalls that, in accordance with resolution 57/270 B, the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and the twenty-third special session will continue to be undertaken within the framework of an integrated and coordinated follow-up to major international conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields, and also recalls in this regard the request to each functional commission of the Economic and Social Council to examine its methods of work in order to better pursue the implementation of the outcomes of major United Nations conferences and summits and report to the Council no later than 2005 on the outcome of this examination; 16. Recognizes the importance attached to the regional and subregional monitoring of the global and regional platforms for action and of the implementation of the outcome of the twenty-third special session by regional commissions and other regional or subregional structures, within their mandates, in consultation with Governments, calls for the promotion of further cooperation in that respect among Governments and, where appropriate, national machineries of the same region, and welcomes in this regard the contributions of the United Nations regional commissions to the forty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women; 17. Encourages the Economic and Social Council to reiterate its request to the regional commissions that have not yet done so, within their respective mandates and resources, to intensify efforts to build up a database, to be updated regularly, in which all programmes and projects carried out in their respective regions by organizations or bodies of the United Nations system are listed, and to facilitate the dissemination of information on such programmes and projects, as well as the evaluation of their impact on the empowerment of women through the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action; 18. Welcomes Economic and Social Council decision 2004/309 of 23 July 2004, in which the Chairperson of the forty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women is requested to submit the outcome of the session, through the Economic and Social Council, to the General Assembly at its sixtieth session, including to the high-level event of the Assembly on the review of the United Nations Millennium Declaration; 7 19. Emphasizes that the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the promotion of gender equality and of women’s empowerment and participation, together with the mainstreaming of a gender perspective, are among the essential elements for advancing the implementation of the Millennium Declaration, with a view, in particular, to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration and the outcomes of United Nations summits, conferences and special sessions; _______________ 7 4 See resolution 55/2.