A/RES/70/132 Improvement of the situation of women and girls in rural areas (i) Investing in and strengthening efforts to meet the basic needs of rural women, including needs relating to their food security and nutrition and that of their families, and to promote adequate standards of living for them, as well as decent conditions for work and access to local, regional and global markets through improved availability, access to and use of critical rural infrastructure, such as energy and transport, science and technology, local services, capacity-building and human resources development measures and the provision of a safe and reliable water supply and sanitation, nutritional programmes, affordable housing programmes, education and literacy programmes, social support measures and health care, including HIV prevention, treatment, care, including psychosocial aspects, and support services; (j) Designing and implementing national policies and legal frameworks that promote and protect the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by rural women and girls, and creating an environment that does not tolerate violations or abuses of their rights, including domestic violence, sexual violence and all other forms of gender-based violence and discrimination; (k) Ensuring that the rights of older women in rural areas are taken into account with regard to their equal access to basic social services, appropriate social protection and/or social security measures, equal access to and control of economic resources and their empowerment through access to financial and infrastructure services, with special focus on the provision of support to older women, including indigenous women, who often have access to few resources and are more vulnerable; (l) Valuing and supporting the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women in rural areas, in the conservation and sustainable use of traditional crops and biodiversity for present and future generations as an essential contribution to food security and nutrition; (m) Promoting the rights of women and girls with disabilities in rural areas, including by ensuring access on an equal basis to productive employment and decent work, economic and financial resources and disability-sensitive infrastructure and services, in particular in relation to health and education, as well as by ensuring that their priorities and needs are fully incorporated into policies and programmes, inter alia, through their participation in decision -making processes; (n) Developing specific assistance programmes and advisory services to promote economic skills of rural women in banking, modern trading and financial procedures and providing microcredit and other financial and business services to a greater number of women in rural areas, in particular female heads of households, for their economic empowerment; (o) Supporting women entrepreneurs and women smallholder farmers, including those in subsistence farming, by continuing to provide public investment and to encourage private investment in rural women to close the gender gap in agriculture, and facilitating their access to extension and financial services, agricultural inputs and land, water sanitation and irrigation, markets and innovative technologies; (p) Mobilizing resources, including at the national level and through official development assistance, for increasing women’s access to existing savings and credit schemes, as well as targeted programmes that provide women with capital, knowledge and tools that enhance their economic capacities; (q) Seeking to ensure and improve equal access for rural women to decent work in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, supporting and promoting 4/6