development activities, including those of United Nations funds and programmes and the specialized agencies; 21. Emphasizes the critical role that the resident coordinator system plays in ensuring that gender perspectives are mainstreamed in the country programmes of United Nations operational agencies; 22. Requests that the United Nations Development Fund for Women work to bring its experience in programme countries to the attention of other organizations in the United Nations system with a view to strengthening the gender perspective of development programmes in developing countries and increasing synergy with other United Nations organizations; 23. Requests the Secretary-General, in his report for the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-second session on the thematic issues of violence against women, women and armed conflict, the human rights of women, and the girl child, to draw special attention to the full participation of women in all aspects of humanitarian assistance programmes, including their design, management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, drawing upon the reports of the agencies and bodies of the United Nations system concerning humanitarian assistance and other reports as necessary; 24. Stresses the importance of mainstreaming a gender perspective in the individual programmes of the medium-term plan for the period 1998-2001, as adopted by the General Assembly,48 and encourages the Committee for Programme and Coordination to examine this issue when reviewing the medium-term plan; 25. Emphasizes that the implementation of the Platform for Action requires the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into the design, planning and implementation of all policies and programmes and administrative procedures in the United Nations system, and in this regard, notes with appreciation the conclusion of the Inter-Agency Committee on Women and Gender Equality that mainstreaming is a responsibility of the United Nations system as a whole and of all staff in all policy and programme areas and in decision-making; 26. Encourages the Economic and Social Council, at its coordination segment in 1997, to develop specific recommendations for mainstreaming a gender perspective into all United Nations system activities, including by: (a) Assessing the achievements and the obstacles encountered in mainstreaming a gender perspective at the intergovernmental level, including the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the regional and functional commissions, and in the United Nations system, including the Secretariat, the specialized agencies and all operational activities, including those at the field level, and making specific recommendations thereon; (b) Encouraging the development of methodologies and practical tools for mainstreaming a gender perspective and for monitoring progress thereon on a regular basis, especially at senior levels, through, inter alia, performance indicators and evaluation, mechanisms for accountability, impact analysis and identifying best practices; (c) Stressing the importance of further developing and improving training on gender issues, inter alia, through evaluation of training practices, in order to strengthen expertise on gender issues; 48 General Assembly resolution 51/219. -32-