Women in development A/RES/68/227 labour-market regulations and social provisions create a more level playing field for women, including by enacting and enforcing minimum wage legislation, eliminating discriminatory wage practices and promoting measures such as public works programmes, in order to enable women to cope with recurrent crises and long-term unemployment; 37. Also recognizes the need to empower women, particularly poor women and girls, economically and politically, and in this regard encourages Governments, with the support of their development partners, to invest in appropriate infrastructure and other projects, including the provision of water and sanitation to rural areas and urban slums, in order to increase health and well-being, relieve the workloads of women and girls and release their time and energy for other productive activities, including entrepreneurship; 38. Further recognizes the central role of agriculture in development, and stresses the importance of reviewing agricultural policies and strategies to ensure that women’s critical role in food security and nutrition is recognized and addressed as an integral part of both short- and long-term responses to food insecurity, excessive price volatility and food crises in developing countries; 39. Recognizes the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women and women in local communities, and their traditional knowledge in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty; 40. Expresses concern at the overall expansion of the HIV and AIDS epidemic and the fact that in some regions women and girls are still the most affected by HIV and AIDS, that they are more easily infected, that they bear a disproportionate share of the caregiving burden and that they are more vulnerable to violence, stigmatization and discrimination, poverty and marginalization from their families and communities as a result of HIV and AIDS, and taking into account that despite substantial progress, the 2010 deadline of universal access has not been met, calls upon Governments and the international community to urgently scale up responses towards achieving the goal of universal access to comprehensive HIV prevention programmes, treatment, care and support and, in line with the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Intensifying Our Efforts to Eliminate HIV and AIDS, 13 to ensure that national responses to HIV and AIDS meet the specific needs of women and girls, including those living with and affected by HIV and AIDS across their lifespan; 41. Reaffirms the commitment to achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015, as set out in the targets under Goal 5 of the Millennium Development Goals and as supported at the International Conference on Population and Development, by integrating this goal into strategies for attaining the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration 5 aimed at reducing maternal mortality, improving maternal health, reducing child mortality, promoting gender equality, combating HIV and AIDS and eradicating poverty; 42. Urges Governments and all sectors of society to promote and to pursue gender-based approaches to the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases based on data disaggregated by sex and age in their effort to address the critical differences in the rapidly growing magnitude of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, which affect people of all ages, gender, race and income levels, as noted in the political declaration of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly 9/11