A/HRC/13/32 II. Discrimination in the context of the right to food A. Discrimination in terms of region, markets, prices, subsidies, resources and infrastructure services 1. Regional inequalities and the increasing marginalization of the most vulnerable groups 12. There is little, if any, improvement in the situation of the poorest regions of the world in terms of poverty and hunger reduction. Overall, prior to the economic and food crisis, the number of people in developing regions living in extreme poverty – on less then $1.25 a day at 2005 prices – decreased from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2005. Once the data have been disaggregated on regions, this encouraging development reveals less ground for optimism. The decline in the number of people living in extreme poverty is largely attributable to China.1 More than half of the population of sub-Saharan Africa remains below the poverty line. Similarly, Southern Asia, while registering certain progress, still has 39 per cent of its population living in extreme poverty.2 13. An infamous record was broken in 2009: more than 1 billion people were undernourished worldwide.3 According to FAO, the Asia and Pacific region had the largest number of hungry people (642 million), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (264 million). The latter has the largest prevalence of undernourishment relative to its population size (32 per cent).4 As an effect of the escalating food prices, four regions of the world have seen percentage increases in undernourishment in relation to 2004-2006, namely sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, Southern Asia (India excluded) and Eastern Asia.5 14. In addition to the food and financial crises, the environmental crisis should not be forgotten. Climate change is expected to affect the poorest regions with the highest level of chronic hunger worst.6 It is asserted that climate change and biofuels development will affect the four dimensions of food security: availability, accessibility, stability and utilization, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.7 15. Existing inequalities between the world’s regions and the vulnerability of the poorest members of developing countries should therefore continue to deepen as a result of three concomitant crises: the food crisis, the economic crisis and the environmental crisis. 2. Markets, prices, resources and infrastructures services 16. According to the market economy model, higher food prices should represent an incentive for farmers, including those from the developed world, and trigger an increase in production. In reality, however, the developing world increased cereal production by less than 1 percent in 2008 and production actually decreased in most developing countries.8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 World Bank, Global Monitoring Report 2009: a development emergency, p. 19. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009, pp. 67. FAO, ‘1.02 billion people hungry’, Rome, 19 June 2009. “More people than ever are victims of hunger”, FAO Background Note, 2009. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, op.cit, 2009. FAO, “2050: Climate change will worsen the plight of the poor”, 30 September 2009. High-Level Expert Forum - How to Feed the World in 2050, Climate change and bioenergy challenges for food and agriculture, Rome, 12-13 October 2009. FAO, “The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2009”, p. 29. 5