CEDAW/C/1996/3/Add.4 English Page 12 limited in order to concentrate scarce resources on obtainable goals, that the priorities more accurately reflect FAO’s substantive areas of work and realistically achievable goals, and that verifiable indicators be developed to facilitate monitoring of progress and reporting. The revision was also found to be timely since FAO’s leadership, organizational structure, policies and priorities have been changing and evolving over the last two years. 48. The revised Plan of Action for Women in Development (1996-2001) eliminates the earlier Plan’s focus on eight substantive priority areas, with numerous prescribed activities that were difficult to monitor and found to be too encompassing to implement effectively. In their place, the revised Plan (C 95/14, Supplement 1) emphasizes three strategic objectives for promoting gender equity in achieving sustainable development in FAO’s substantive areas of work, and highlights four key areas of interrelated actions to achieve these three objectives. The result is a more systematic and programmatic approach that will allow FAO to concentrate human and financial resources on these more achievable and measurable objectives. The revised Plan also eliminates the earlier focus on five administrative priorities in favour of establishing more effective mechanisms for providing advice on implementing the Plan of Action, for monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the Plan, and for achieving equal employment opportunity targets. 49. The methodology for revising the Plan of Action was developed to make the revision as participatory as possible. First, division directors and senior management were convoked to discuss the proposed revision and it was agreed that each technical division, plus the Division of Personnel, would develop a formal, internal women in development divisional programme of action for the medium term (1996-2001). Second, the Integration of Women in Development Service, the coordinating unit, facilitated half-day consultations with staff of 65 services from 25 divisions that are technically responsible for the Plan’s implementation. Third, to promote the advancement of rural women in their own areas of competence, these technical divisions and services developed draft women in development programmes of action with realistic objectives, activities, outputs and monitoring indicators. Fourth, these draft programmes were prepared and submitted to the Integration of Women in Development Service and the Evaluation Service for review prior to finalization. Finally, the Division on Women and People’s Participation in Development consolidated these divisional programmes and incorporated them into the FAO Plan of Action for Women in Development, 1996-2001. This Plan guides the implementation of FAO’s mandate related to the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and to the Platform for Action that stemmed from the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women. B. The Fourth World Conference on Women 50. FAO undertook extensive activities to promote rural women in the preparation of and follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women. In 1994, through the FAO assistance in support of rural women in preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women - Phase I programme, FAO provided technical and financial support to a total of 16 countries in their preparations for Beijing: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Congo, Eastern Caribbean, Egypt, El Salvador, /...