target of the sdgs calls for the global community to promote developmentoriented policies that support productive activities decent job creation entrepreneurship creativity and innovation and encourage the formalization and growth of micro small and mediumsized enterprises including through access to financial services most businesses owned and operated by women are overwhelmingly micro or smallsized businesses but unlike their male counterparts women business owners must contend with a unique and disparate set of challenges in addition to those challenges facing small businesses more broadly