E/2010/27 E/CN.6/2010/11 as well as those contained in the outcomes of the Commission on the Status of Women, “Recalling relevant international commitments that contribute to women’s economic empowerment, made at the major United Nations conferences and summits, including at the 2005 World Summit and at the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, held in Doha in 2008, “Recalling also that in the agreed conclusions adopted in 2008, the Commission on the Status of Women noted the growing body of evidence demonstrating that investing in women and girls had a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth and that increasing women’s economic empowerment was central to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and to the eradication of poverty, “Bearing in mind that in the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development, Heads of State and Government and high representatives recalled that gender equality was essential for economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability and development effectiveness and reiterated the need for gender mainstreaming into the formulation and implementation of development policies, including financing for development policies, and for dedicated resources, “Noting that there is increasing recognition that women’s economic empowerment is a key strategy for economic development, which not only improves the economic status of women, their households and communities but also creates a multiplier effect for economic growth, and that the lack of economic empowerment for women has a negative impact on the goals of economic growth and poverty reduction and leads to less favourable development outcomes, “Underlining the importance of strengthening domestic financial sectors as a source of capital by making them available to women living in poverty, in particular women living in rural areas, thus expanding their access to financial services, “Reiterating that access to microfinance and microcredit can contribute to the achievement of the goals and targets of major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, in particular the goals relating to poverty eradication, gender equality and the empowerment of women, “Reaffirming that microfinance, in particular microcredit programmes, has succeeded in generating productive self-employment and has proved to be an effective tool in overcoming poverty, and bearing in mind that microfinance, in particular microcredit, and other financial instruments, have especially benefited women and have contributed in the achievement of their economic empowerment, “Expressing its concern that, while women represent an important and growing proportion of business owners, their contribution to economic and social development is constrained by, inter alia, the denial and lack of equal 72 10-30576