A/HRC/16/40 to colonial times or corrupt regimes of the present. New developments such as the building of dams or the new phenomenon of large-scale land acquisitions by foreign Governments or companies may force smallholders and other rural people to leave their lands and thus lose their primary base of food and their way of life. Other causes of vulnerability include difficulties in acquiring seeds or access to credit; lack of access to markets owing to the centralization of agribusiness chains or lack of investment in infrastructure; restrictions on unionization, including criminalization of such attempts; and vulnerability in the face of powerful third parties, such as private actors or companies. The obstacles and causes for exclusion have been detailed by the Committee in its preliminary study (A/HRC/13/32) and in a background paper on peasant farmers and the right to food: a history of discrimination and exploitation (AC/3/CRP.5). Acknowledging the importance of the matter, the Human Rights Council mandated the Advisory Committee to undertake a separate study on ways and means to further advance the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. C. Right to food and the urban poor 25. With the size of urban population continuing to rise, the absolute number of urban poor and undernourished also continues to increase. Intra-urban differences reveal levels of inequalities and malnutrition rather than an average that provides one single estimate of poverty.29 Trends have shown that, for the poor living in urban areas, dependence on cashbased incomes increases together with a decrease in reliance on surrounding natural resources.30 26. Countries continue to assume that food security is equivalent to food shortage. African States, for example, continue to spend a large share of resources on meeting the needs of the urban poor rather than investing in productive sectors, such as agriculture and the generation of off-farm and urban employment.31 27. The pursuit of social goods should not be separated from the management of public expenditure and the eradication of corruption. It is important to note the responsibility of Governments to distribute food aid in a non-discriminatory manner. In a recent report, an international non-governmental organization alleged that, in Ethiopia, food aid had been channelled towards political supporters of the Government, while groups of the population supporting the opposition were excluded from either subsidized or emergency food.32 Moreover, State provision of food aid through social safety nets rarely addresses discrimination stemming from inequalities within the households. 28. The recent food crisis affected the urban poor disproportionately. The director of SOS Children’s Villages Kosovo, Nezahat Salihu-Ramadani, commented that the increase in food prices led to “an unbearable decrease in purchasing power” for the urban poor in Kosovo. “Most products have become unaffordable, especially for those who live on State benefits. People now really have to prioritize their needs. There is a notable shift in what people are buying and eating.”33 Skyrocketing prices have made the tragedy of reduced 29 30 31 32 33 Marie T. Ruel and others, “Urban challenges to nutrition security: a review of food security, health and care in the cities”, International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington, D.C., 1998). Lawrence Haddad, Marie T. Ruel and James L. Garrett, “Are urban poverty and undernutrition growing? Some newly assembled evidence”, World Development, vol. 27, no. 11 (November 1999). Shenggen Fan and others, “Investing in African agriculture to halve poverty by 2015”, Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System, Working Paper No. 25 (February 2009). Human Rights Watch, Development without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repression in Ethiopia (19 October 2010), p. 53. Available from www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4cbd2fce2.html. See SOS Children’s Villages International, “Kosovo’s urban poor hard hit by food crisis”, available from www.sos-childrensvillages.org/focus-areas/emergency-relief/children-in-catastrophes/global- 9