A/HRC/37/61 are, often without having to acquire additional land (e.g. a “garden on the roof” or a “garden in a bag”). 33. Providing fishing equipment and training has also proven helpful to people trapped in conflict or natural disasters, who are forced to acquire their own food. Other initiatives focus on ensuring the continued functioning of markets — for example by encouraging traders and providing support to them to supply essential food items and strengthen delivery networks, or by investing in irrigation projects to help sustain agricultural and pastoral livelihoods during times of crisis. III. Impact of disasters on people with special needs 34. Natural disasters affect the most vulnerable in a disproportionate manner, making the enjoyment of the right to food in disaster and post-disasters contexts even more challenging for those with special needs. More than 75 per cent of the world’s poor depend directly on natural resources to sustain their livelihoods. 35 These people have limited savings, depend on agriculture for a living and face increasing exposure to disaster risks. According to the World Bank, poor people are typically more exposed to natural hazards, lose a greater portion of their wealth and are often unable to draw on support from family, friends, financial systems, or even from their government.36 35. In particular, marginalized local and traditional communities, such as nomadic and indigenous peoples, as well as peasants, are affected by denial of access to land, fishing and hunting; deprivation of access to adequate and culturally acceptable foods; loss of traditional knowledge; and loss of biodiversity and degraded ecosystems. 36. Subsistence farmers, peasants and indigenous communities tend to be dependent on the lowest-quality land, including hillsides, deserts and floodplains, and often already suffer from chronic food insecurity. They also might not have access to formal social safety nets. In the face of natural disasters, individuals and communities that are already vulnerable have less capacity to cope with natural disasters, and may have to incur crippling debts and resort to other more extreme measures. 37. People with disabilities, the elderly, people living with HIV/AIDS or those who are ill and living in poverty, as well as internally displaced people, migrants and refugees, are exceptionally vulnerable. Natural disasters are one of the major reasons that people leave their homes in search of liveable conditions, often becoming refugees. In her prior report, the Special Rapporteur paid specific attention to internally displaced persons and refugees in the context of conflicts, highlighting potential additional consequences on host communities and affirming that those fleeing were “often forced to leave behind their assets” and their “economic independence may be hampered by the costs of transit, few income opportunities and limited rights in the host State”. 1. Children 38. Children face acute vulnerability due to their inherently limited access to food, as they rely on caregivers to ensure their daily food intake, especially in the first 1,000 days of their life. 37 Appropriate nutrition during this window is vital in order to overcome lifethreatening childhood diseases. 38 During natural disasters, household income may be seriously diminished, thus affecting caregivers’ capacity to fulfil children’s basic nutritional needs. 39. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), “an estimated 535 million children — nearly one in four — live in countries affected by conflict or disaster, 35 36 37 38 8 FAO, The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges (Rome, 2017), p. 68, available at www.fao.org/3/a-i6583e.pdf. World Bank, Unbreakable, p. 26. Carolyn Kousky, “The future of children”, Children and Climate Change, vol. 26, No. 1 (2016), pp. 73–92, see pp. 75–76. See A/71/282, p. 5.