30 May 1991

12th plenary meeting

National, regional and international machinery for the advancement of women

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 40/108 of 13 December 1985, in which the Assembly endorsed the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women,

Bearing in mind its resolution 1986/31 of 23 May 1986, in which it requested the Secretary-General, inter alia, to propose guidelines for national machinery to promote the advancement of women and ways to ensure the effective implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies,

Recalling its resolution 1988/30 of 26 May 1988, in which measures were proposed to strengthen national machinery for the advancement of women, including the involvement of women's non-governmental organizations,

Mindful of its resolution 1990/15 of 24 May 1990, the annex to which contains the recommendations and conclusions arising from the first review and appraisal of the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies and, specifically, recommendations XXIII and XXIV, which deal with national machinery,

Recalling its resolution 1990/14 of 24 May 1990, in which it urged Governments to make renewed commitments to implement the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies by strengthening their national machinery and increasing the resources devoted to programmes for the advancement of women,

Recognizing that national machinery is an essential element in the promotion and implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,

1. Urges countries that have not yet done so to establish, as soon as possible, and at the latest by 1995, national machinery for the advancement of women that can have a direct effect on government policy;

2. Urges Governments to provide adequate and secure political, financial, technical and human resources to enable the national machinery to function effectively and have access to the highest levels of government;

3. Stresses that the provision of technical assistance to countries establishing or strengthening national machinery should be considered a priority activity by the United Nations system and donor countries;

4. Invites the national machinery of different countries to exchange information, bilaterally or multilaterally, on issues of common interest, including information on innovative policies, programmes and research;

5. Requests the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the regional commissions and within existing resources, to promote such an exchange of information through United Nations documents, by supporting regional and subregional meetings of national machineries, by using resources from the regular budgets of the five regional commissions, by making provisions for it in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1992-1993 and by annually updating and distributing the Directory of National Machinery for the Advancement of Women;

6. Reiterates its recommendation that the Secretary-General make available the services of an interregional adviser through the regular programme of technical cooperation, to assist, on request, national machinery in carrying out effectively the review and appraisal of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, in preparing the reports called for in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and in preparing for the world conference on women to be held in 1995;

7. Encourages the provision of such other technical assistance as may be required by national machinery, and the sharing of support and expertise between units of such machinery, particularly those in developing countries, to facilitate the preparation of national reports for the 1995 world conference on women;

8. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its thirty-sixth session on the activities of the appropriate bodies of the United Nations system, including the United Nations Development Fund for Women, that provide assistance to national machinery to ensure that the work being done by those bodies is complementary and does not overlap;

9. Also requests the Secretary-General to invite national Governments to review and update the case-studies prepared for the Seminar on National Machinery for Monitoring and Improving the Status of Women, held at Vienna from 28 September to 3 October 1987, and other appropriate case-studies, to publish those case-studies as a reference manual for national machinery and to make provisions for this in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1992-1993;

10. Requests that appropriate steps be taken, within existing resources, to strengthen the capacity within the Division for the Advancement of Women to work with national machinery and the specialized agencies of the United Nations system to achieve the goals of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies;

11. Urges Governments to make every effort to make information on their national machinery available and to ensure that titles accurately reflect the role of the offices concerned;

12. Requests Governments to ensure appropriate training for the staff of the national machinery and also to encourage the inclusion in management training courses of gender-analysis training and information on the role of national machinery;

13. Decides that an evaluation of the effectiveness of efforts to establish and improve national machinery since the adoption of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies in 1985 and an analysis of the further action that is required should be included in a report for submission to the 1995 world conference on women in 1995.