A/HRC/29/16 17. Much had been accomplished with regard to the recommendations on poverty reduction and equal access to education, water, health, housing and food security for the poor and vulnerable, including indigenous peoples. The delegation highlighted, among other things: the poverty reduction programme and pro-poor pro-growth development approach; continuous investments in the social sector, which now received 34.5 per cent of the annual budget; and the enactment of a national minimum wage in 2013. 18. Progress within the education sector had been significant. The Millennium Development Goals Guyana Progress Report 2011 had indicated that Guyana had made excellent progress towards achieving universal primary education and had met its target of eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education. 19. The education sector had played a critical role in equalizing access to opportunities for children regardless of where they lived or their ethnicity, religion or class. That was most evident in the interior and Amerindian communities, where all children had access to nursery and primary education and over 90 per cent had access to secondary education. The delegation provided detailed information on programmes and initiatives implemented in the area of education. 20. Health care services offered by the Government remained free of charge. In 2014, 96 per cent of all births were attended by skilled health personnel, in comparison to 85.6 per cent in previous years. Guyana continued to offer free treatment for the prevention of mother to child transmission and free antiretroviral treatment at its facilities; however, those programmes were under pressure due to the reduction of international funding to assist small developing countries. Immunization coverage in Guyana remained high in all rural and hinterland areas, despite challenges regarding the high cost of gaining access to remote areas. 21. The national housing programme continued to provide subsidized house lots for poor families and low- and middle-income families. Through a number of legislative measures and Government/commercial bank partnerships, low-income households could gain access to loans to build their houses. Additionally, by the end of 2013, 18,000 households in squatter settlements that had emerged over three decades had been regularized, with Certificates of Title to Land being provided. 22. The supply of potable water currently reached in excess of 95 per cent of the population in the coastal areas and 73 per cent in the hinterland areas. 23. Guyana had been honoured by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for attaining the targets set as part of Millennium Development Goal 1 and the goal set by the 1996 World Food Summit of halving the absolute number of hungry people by 2015 and improving nutrition. The prevalence of undernourishment had been reduced from 19.1 per cent (1990–1992) to 5.1 per cent (2010 and 2012). 24. In recognition of the historic injustices perpetrated against the Amerindian peoples, the revised Guyana Constitution and the Amerindian Act 2006 provided for and guaranteed Amerindian land rights, governance and culture for the Amerindian population. Amerindians were currently the second-largest land owners in Guyana, with the State being the first. They owned communal land titles totalling 14 per cent of the country’s land mass. A total of 103 Amerindian villages had been awarded absolute grants and 83 had been demarcated thus far. The delegation indicated that the Government had continued to channel resources toward the development of Amerindian communities, and reported on numerous initiatives. Guyana would continue to give consideration to ratifying the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). 25. The delegation reported on efforts to address discrimination based on culture and traditions and to promote and protect the rights of all citizens. It highlighted the enactment 5