A/RES/72/235 Human resources development to make well-informed choices in education, training and careers, develop an integrated system of quality education and training that responds to constantly evolving needs, promote employer recognition and career development based on skills and mastery and foster a culture that supports and celebrates lifelong learning, in order to provide opportunities for all to develop their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of their starting points, thereby improving their chances of staying gainfully employed, and calls for more effective support for developing countries in this regard, including from the United Nations system; 9. Encourages Member States to adopt and implement comprehensive human resources development strategies premised on national development objectives that ensure a strong link between quality education, training and employment, help to maintain a productive and competitive workforce and are responsive to the needs of the economy; 10. Stresses that human resources development policies should focus on supporting the emergence of a sufficiently wide and flexible pool of skilled human resources, especially among women and youth, to support all sectors of the economy and be matched with present and future workforce needs, which requires wellsequenced investments in basic education, vocational training, on-the-job training and more advanced managerial, engineering and scientific education to increase the supply of technological knowledge that can be absorbed by national innov ation systems; 11. Emphasizes the need to adopt cross-sectoral approaches and mechanisms to identify human resources development needs in the medium and long term for all sectors of the economy and to formulate and implement policies and programmes to address those needs; 12. Recognizes that comprehensive and flexible science, technological knowledge and innovation strategies that encompass all sectors of the economy are critical to ensuring that skills are matched with labour market demand and ready to adapt to and benefit from a constantly evolving technology landscape; 13. Emphasizes that, when science, technological knowledge and innovation and human resources development approaches are mutually reinforcing , they can lead to a virtuous circle of economic growth, human progress and sustainable development; 14. Stresses that investment in human resources development should be an integral part of national development policies and strategies, and in this regard calls for the adoption of policies to facilitate investment focused on physical and social infrastructure, including education, in particular skills upgrading and vocational training in areas such as science and technology, including information and communications technology, as well as in capacity development, health and sustainable development; 15. Encourages Member States, as appropriate, to continue to implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including social protection floors, to adopt policies that strengthen existing safety nets and protect vulnerable groups and to take other appropriate actions, including boosting national economic performance, recognizes that social protection floors, defined according to national priorities and the individual circumstances of States, can provide systemic approaches to addressing poverty and vulnerability and can contribute significantly to successful human resources development strategies, acknowledges, in this regard, that many developing countries lack the necessary financial resources and capacity to implement such countercyclical measures, and in this regard recognizes the need for 4/7 17-23313