A/HRC/22/50 Rights Council and General Assembly resolutions on the right to food. At the 2010 Highlevel Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, Heads of State and Government also committed to promoting and protecting women's equal access to property and to land, as well as to productive resources. 45 Indeed, land is more than an economic asset that women should be allowed to use productively. It is also a means of empowerment, as the greater economic independence that results from land ownership enhances the woman's role in decision-making and allows her to garner more social, family and community support. 32. Women face multiple forms of discrimination in accessing land. As regards land that is inherited, laws in many countries still discriminate against women, and even when the discriminatory elements are removed, the laws are often circumvented under the pressure of social and cultural norms. For instance, where a sister could inherit land on an equal basis with her brothers, she may accept a lump-sum payment in lieu of her portion of the land in order to maintain good relations with her brothers. 46 As regards land that is acquired during marriage, in a number of regions, particularly in South Asia, a separation of property regime is applied, according to which assets brought into the marriage or acquired during marriage remain the individual property of the spouse who acquired said assets from his or her personal funds. But this leads to deeply inequitable outcomes, as it does not recognize the important non-monetary contribution that women make to the household by looking after the house, child-rearing, caring for the elderly, or various other chores. 47 33. Women also face discrimination in accessing extension services.48 First, women are underrepresented among extension services agents. Yet, in some contexts, social or cultural rules may prohibit contacts between a woman farmer and a male agricultural agent, especially when the woman is single, widowed or abandoned. Moreover, male agents may have less understanding for the specific constraints faced by women. Second, extension services tend to presume that any knowledge transmitted to the men will automatically trickle down to the women and so that they benefit equally, and meetings may be organized without taking into account the specific time and mobility constraints of women. This reinforces the pre-existing imbalances in decision-making within the household and neglects the fact that the needs of women may be different from those of men. 34. The third area is finance. Microcredit schemes often target rural women specifically, who, even more than men, face obstacles in accessing credit. However, far more could be done. First, improved access to loans for rural women does not necessarily imply that women will control the use of the loans. Some microfinance programmes directed at women have been assessed to be successful in increasing the participation of women in decision-making within the household, particularly as regards family planning and the children‟s education, and other members of the household have sometimes assumed a greater share of the housework since women who benefit from a microcredit programme tend to spend more time on their businesses and contribute more to the household income. The Small Farmers Development Program (SFDP) launched by the Indonesian government 45 46 47 48 General Assembly resolution 65/1, para. 72 (k) and (l). N. Ramachandran, "Women and food security in South Asia: Current issues and emerging concerns", UNU/World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER), 2006/131 (2006). See for instance Indian Institute of Management, The Gender Asset and Wealth Gaps: Evidence from Ecuador, Ghana and Karnataka, India (Bangalore, 2011). World Bank and IFPRI, Gender and governance in rural services: Insights from India, Ghana, and Ethiopia (Washington, D.C., 2010). 15