draft plan to the Council at its substantive session of 2000 in order to influence the medium-term plans of the individual organizations of the United Nations system. "Annex "COMMENTS OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN ON THE PROPOSED SYSTEM-WIDE MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN, 1996-2001* "I. GENERAL COMMENTS "1. The system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women, 1996-2001 needs to be more than a compilation of what the organizations of the United Nations system are doing. "2. The concept of visible mainstreaming should be better reflected in the indicative planning of the system. "3. The list of actors under different critical areas of concern should not be exclusive. "4. More emphasis is needed on "policy formulation and guidance", as a bridge between research and analysis, function and operational training. "5. The United Nations Secretariat as a whole should undertake activities in the critical areas of concern - not only those entities that have a specific mandate on the advancement of women and the operational agencies. Certain entities of the Secretariat, such as the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, the Department of Political Affairs, the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, the Office of Legal Affairs and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, are not included in these activities. As another example, the Joint and Co-sponsored United Nations Programme on Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome needs to be better reflected in the system-wide medium-term plan. "6. A more strategic orientation on the mainstreaming of a gender perspective within the work of the United Nations is needed. "II. SPECIFIC COMMENTS "A. Women and poverty "1. More emphasis should be placed on the need for joint efforts by the United Nations system as regards the use of gender-disaggregated data and the development of indicators to monitor trends in poverty from a gender perspective. "2. Insufficient attention is given to an understanding of the underlying causes of poverty. * The proposed system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women, 1996-2001 was before the Commission in document E/CN.6/1996/CRP.2. -80-