A/RES/62/131 international levels to eradicate poverty, and recognizes that the implementation of the commitments made by Governments during the Decade has fallen short of expectations; Emphasizes that the major United Nations conferences and summits, 7. including the Millennium Summit, the 2005 World Summit, as well as the International Conference on Financing for Development, in its Monterrey Consensus, 7 have reinforced the priority and urgency of poverty eradication within the United Nations development agenda; 6F 8. Also emphasizes that poverty eradication policies should attack poverty by addressing its root and structural causes and manifestations, and that equity and the reduction of inequalities need to be incorporated in those policies; Stresses that an enabling environment is a critical precondition for 9. achieving equity and social development and that, while economic growth is essential, entrenched inequality and marginalization are an obstacle to the broadbased and sustained growth required for sustainable, inclusive people-centred development, and recognizes the need to balance and ensure complementarity between measures to achieve growth and measures to achieve economic and social equity in order for there to be an impact on overall poverty levels; 10. Recognizes the need to promote respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms in order to address the most pressing social needs of people living in poverty, including through the design and development of appropriate mechanisms to strengthen and consolidate democratic institutions and governance; 11. Reaffirms the commitment to the empowerment of women and gender equality, as well as to the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into all development efforts, recognizing that these are critical for achieving sustainable development and for efforts to combat hunger, poverty and disease and to strengthen policies and programmes that improve, ensure and broaden the full participation of women in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life, as equal partners, and to improve their access to all resources needed for the full exercise of all their human rights and fundamental freedoms by removing persistent barriers, including ensuring equal access to full and productive employment and decent work, as well as strengthening their economic independence; 12. Also reaffirms the commitment to employment strategies and macroeconomic policies that actively promote opportunities for full, freely chosen and productive employment, including for the most disadvantaged, as well as decent work for all, in order to deliver social justice combined with economic efficiency, with full respect for fundamental principles and rights at work under conditions of equity, equality, security and dignity, and further reaffirms that employment creation should be incorporated into macroeconomic policies, taking fully into account the social impact and dimension of globalization; 13. Further reaffirms that there is an urgent need to create an environment at the national and international levels that is conducive to the attainment of full and productive employment and decent work for all as a foundation for sustainable development and that an environment that supports investment, growth and entrepreneurship is essential to the creation of new job opportunities, and also _______________ 7 Report of the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, 18–22 March 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.II.A.7), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. 3