CEDAW/C/GC/34 (c) Ensure that land acquisitions, including land lease contracts, do not violate the rights of rural women or result in forced eviction, and protect rural women from the negative impacts of the acquisition of land by national and transnational companies, development projects, extractive industries and megaprojects; (d) Obtain the free and informed consent of rural women before the approval of any acquisitions or project affecting rural lands or territories and resources, including those relating to the lease and sale of land, land expropriation and resettlement. When such land acquisitions do occur, they should be in line with international standards, and rural women should be adequately compensated; (e) Adopt and effectively implement laws and policies that limit the quantity and quality of rural land offered for sale or lease to third States or companies. 3. Food and nutrition 63. Rural women are critical to achieving food security, reducing poverty, malnutrition and hunger and promoting rural development, yet their contribution is often unpaid, unacknowledged and poorly supported. Rural women are among those most affected by food insecurity, exposed to food price volatility, malnutrition and hunger, and likely to suffer when food prices escalate (see A/HRC/22/50). 64. States parties should ensure the realization of the right to food and nutrition of rural women within the framework of food sovereignty and ensure that they have the authority to manage and control their natural resources. 65. States parties should pay particular attention to the nutritional needs of rural women, in particular pregnant and lactating women, putting in place effective policies ensuring that rural women have access to adequate food and nutrition, taking into account the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security. 66. States parties should adopt laws, policies and measures to promote and protect the diverse local agricultural methods and products of rural women and their access to markets. They should ensure the diversity of crops and medicinal resources to improve rural women’s food security and health, as well as access to livestock. 4. Financial services, including agricultural credits, loans and insurance 67. Access to financial services on fair terms is crucial for the development of rural women’s enterprises and for their income-generating and livelihood strategies as producers and entrepreneurs. Constraints on women’s access to financial services include: legal and policy barriers, which may not allow women to apply for credit in their own right; discriminatory attitudes that prevent women from holding bank accounts or entering into contracts without the consent of a male relative; and requests for collaterals that rural women may lack. 68. States parties should promote the transition to formal financial services and ensure rural women’s access to credit, loans, matrimonial savings, 16-03601 19/25