equal partners with men in technical, managerial and entrepreneurial fields; (r) Reform laws or enact national policies that support the establishment of labour laws to ensure the protection of all women workers, including safe work practices, the right to organize and access to justice. Strategic objective F.2. Facilitate women’s equal access to resources, employment, markets and trade Actions to be taken 166. By Governments: (a) Promote and support women’s self-employment and the development of small enterprises, and strengthen women’s access to credit and capital on appropriate terms equal to those of men through the scaling-up of institutions dedicated to promoting women’s entrepreneurship, including, as appropriate, non-traditional and mutual credit schemes, as well as innovative linkages with financial institutions; (b) Strengthen the incentive role of the State as employer to develop a policy of equal opportunities for women and men; (c) Enhance, at the national and local levels, rural women’s incomegenerating potential by facilitating their equal access to and control over productive resources, land, credit, capital, property rights, development programmes and cooperative structures; (d) Promote and strengthen micro-enterprises, new small businesses, cooperative enterprises, expanded markets and other employment opportunities and, where appropriate, facilitate the transition from the informal to the formal sector, especially in rural areas; (e) Create and modify programmes and policies that recognize and strengthen women’s vital role in food security and provide paid and unpaid women producers, especially those involved in food production, such as farming, fishing and aquaculture, as well as urban enterprises, with equal access to appropriate technologies, transportation, extension services, marketing and credit facilities at the local and community levels; (f) Establish appropriate mechanisms and encourage intersectoral institutions that enable women’s cooperatives to optimize access to necessary services; (g) Increase the proportion of women extension workers and other government personnel who provide technical assistance or administer economic programmes; (h) Review, reformulate, if necessary, and implement policies, including business, commercial and contract law and government regulations, to ensure that they do not discriminate against micro, small and mediumscale enterprises owned by women in rural and urban areas; -70-