A/HRC/10/29 Convinced that each State must adopt a strategy consistent with its resources and capacities to achieve its individual goals in implementing the recommendations contained in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action and, at the same time, cooperate regionally and internationally in order to organize collective solutions to global issues of food security in a world of increasingly interlinked institutions, societies and economies where coordinated efforts and shared responsibilities are essential, Recognizing that the problems of hunger and food insecurity have a global dimension and that there has been insufficient progress made on reducing hunger, and that they could increase dramatically in some regions unless urgent, determined and concerted action is taken, given the anticipated increase in the world population and the stress on natural resources, Noting that environmental degradation, desertification and global climate change are factors contributing to destitution and desperation and have a negative impact on the realization of the right to food, in particular in developing countries, Expressing its deep concern at the number and scale of natural disasters, diseases and pests and their increasing impact in recent years, which have resulted in massive loss of life and livelihood and threatened agricultural production and food security, in particular in developing countries, Stressing the importance of reversing the continuing decline of official development assistance devoted to agriculture, both in real terms and as a share of total official development assistance, Welcoming the recent pledges to increase official development assistance devoted to agriculture, and recalling that the realization of the right to food does not only entail increase in productivity but also a holistic approach that includes a focus on smallholder and traditional farmers and the most vulnerable groups and national and international policies that are conducive to the realization of this right, 1. Reaffirms that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity and therefore requires the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional and international levels for its elimination; 2. Also reaffirms the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, so as to be able to fully develop and maintain his or her physical and mental capacities; 3. Considers it intolerable that more than 6 million children still die every year from hunger-related illnesses before their fifth birthday, that there are at least 963 million undernourished people in the world and that, while the prevalence of hunger has diminished, the absolute number of undernourished people has been increasing in recent years when, according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the planet could produce enough food to feed 12 billion people, twice the world’s present population; 4. Expresses its concern that women and girls are disproportionately affected by hunger, food insecurity and poverty, in part as a result of gender inequality and discrimination, that in many countries girls are twice as likely as boys to die from malnutrition and preventable childhood diseases, and that it is estimated that almost twice as many women as men suffer from malnutrition; 5. Encourages States, in accordance with their relevant obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, to take GE.09-17451 29