A/HRC/16/2 (c) Improve coordination between the different relevant ministries and between national and subnational levels of government; (d) Improve accountability, with a clear allocation of responsibilities, and the setting of precise time frames for the realization of the dimensions of the right to food that require progressive implementation; (e) Ensure adequate participation, particularly of the most food-insecure segments of the population; (f) Pay specific attention to the need to improve the situation of the most vulnerable segments of society; 11. Stresses that the primary responsibility of States is to promote and protect the right to food and that the international community should provide, through a coordinated response and upon request, international cooperation in support for national and regional efforts by providing the assistance necessary to increase food production, particularly through agricultural development assistance, the transfer of technology, food crop rehabilitation assistance and food aid ensuring food security, with a special focus on the gender-sensitive dimension; 12. Calls upon States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to fulfil their obligations under article 2, paragraph 1, and article 11, paragraph 2 thereof, in particular with regard to the right to adequate food; 13. Calls upon States, individually and through international cooperation and assistance, relevant multilateral institutions and other relevant stakeholders, to take all the measures necessary to ensure the realization of the right to food as an essential human rights objective, and to consider reviewing any policy or measure that could have a negative impact on the realization of the right to food, particularly the right of everyone to be free from hunger, before instituting such a policy or measure; 14. Stresses that improving access to productive resources and investment in rural development is essential for eradicating hunger and poverty, in particular in developing countries, including through the promotion of investments in appropriate, smallscale irrigation and water management technologies in order to reduce vulnerability to droughts as well as in programmes, practices and policies to scale up agroecological approaches, and encourages States and donors, both public and private, to examine and consider ways to integrate, where applicable and according to national contexts, the recommendations contained in the latest report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food33 in policies and programmes; 15. Recognizes that 80 per cent of people suffering from hunger live in rural areas, and 50 per cent are small-scale and traditional farm holders, and that these people are especially vulnerable to food insecurity, given the increasing cost of various inputs and the fall in farm incomes; that access to land, water, seeds and other natural resources is an increasing challenge for poor producers; that sustainable and gender-sensitive agricultural policies are important tools to achieve food security and rural development; and that support by States for small farmers, fishing communities and local enterprises is a key element to food security and the provision of the right to food; 16. Stresses the importance of fighting hunger in rural areas, including through national efforts supported by international partnerships to stop desertification and land degradation and through investments and public policies that are specifically appropriate to 33 68 A/HRC/16/49. GE.11-17059