The Secretary-General welcomes the adoption by the 63rd General Assembly of the resolution on System-wide coherence. The Secretary-General notes that with this resolution an important step has been made in strengthening the United Nations' work in the area of gender equality and empowerment of women as well as in ensuring the effective delivery of its operational activities for development, which constitutes the other key components of the resolution.

The Secretary-General is particularly gratified that Member States have agreed to his proposal to consolidate all four women-specific entities into a stronger composite entity for a more robust promotion of the rights and well-being of women around the world.

For his part the Secretary-General has appointed more women to senior posts than at any time in United Nations history. This includes 9 women with the rank of Under-Secretary-General, and overall the number of women in senior posts has increased by 40 percent under his tenure.

The Secretary-General is committed to provide expeditiously the General Assembly with a comprehensive proposal concerning the mission statement, the organizational arrangements, the funding and the oversight for the new entity in order to allow the launching of the composite entity without further delay.