A/HRC/26/39 64. Preliminary good practices for promotion of women’s entrepreneurship include the ILO Job Creation in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Recommendation 1998 (No. 189) and Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality programme, the Canadian Business Women in International Trade programme and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation special programme for women exporters. The International Trade Centre has encouraged States to devise gender-sensitive national export strategies. Two countries also focused on female entrepreneurs, in response to the economic crisis, cutting interest rates on loans to micro- and small enterprises targeted at womenheaded households or introducing special credit lines for female artisans. 65. Training, information and provision of credit and saving facilities are all essential for entrepreneurship. Multilateral initiatives to support women’s entrepreneurship and facilitate their access to financial resources include the ILO Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality programme, the Global Banking Alliance for Women and the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, founded in 1997, one of the first legally recognized women’s cooperative banks. 66. Procurement policies that target women can be a tool to advance women’s businesses. In developing countries, governments are the largest buyer of goods and services, accounting for 15–20 per cent of gross domestic product, and yet spend only 1 per cent on sourcing from women-owned businesses. Some countries have begun to tackle the issue. One country from the Western European and other States Group set a mandatory goal of 5 per cent of federal contract spending on women-owned small businesses. An African country put in place Public Procurement and Disposal (Preference and Reservations) Regulations to ensure access to government contracts by enterprises owned by women, youth and persons with disabilities. Gender analysis of corporate responsibility11 3. 67. Since the 1980s, transnational corporate activity and economic and trade policies, although creating economic opportunities for women, have also exposed them to severe disadvantages and, in some cases, human rights violations. 68. There is an emerging business and human rights agenda focusing on corporate responsibility for human rights violations. The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights12 establish three pillars of corporate responsibility: the duty of the State to protect against human rights abuses by private actors; corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and the duty of both to provide remedies for rights violations. While the Principles acknowledge that guidance to business should take into account gender considerations, there is significant work to be done to elaborate upon this and address the gendered impact of corporate activities on women. Harm to women 69. Corporate governance has produced a dramatic increase in resources and income inequalities, with harsh implications for women, given their concentration lower on the value chain and in poverty. Furthermore, the increased mobility of corporations and free trade agreements have resulted in the amassing of political power vis-à-vis host States and can contribute to a lack of accountability and insurmountable barriers for women to access justice. The move of production by transnational corporations to export processing zones, the reliance on home and sweatshop sectors, and land dispossession by extractives 11 This section draws upon the background paper by Ama Marston. See also the bibliography for this section. 12 A/HRC/17/31, annex. 14