A/HRC/13/38 impacts and lessons learned” that more than a billion people were undernourished in 2009 and even before the crisis, hunger was on the rise.9 In the meantime, as needs increase, the ability of aid agencies to respond is being limited by the global economic downturn. In his report to the Council in July 2009, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food noted that the global food crisis has not unfolded in isolation from the global financial and economic crisis, with the consequence that many developing countries might face increasing difficulty in financing agriculture and rural development, subsidizing food to improve its affordability for the poorest, and establishing or strengthening social protection programmes.10 12. In her report submitted to the tenth session of the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, pointed out that the crisis has worsened affordability problems for housing and land across the world.11 The Special Rapporteur also stated that the crisis and its origins in the housing market reflect fundamental flaws in economic and housing policies, revealing the inability of market mechanisms to provide adequate and affordable housing for all. She further noted that these economic, financial and housing policies and approaches that have seriously impacted the right to adequate housing in the past decades have contributed to the present crisis. 13. In developed as well as developing countries the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to health and the right to education, are particularly vulnerable to budget cuts. The World Bank has estimated that the 43 countries which were still in recession at the beginning of December 2009 face a US$ 11.6 billion shortfall in core spending for health and education.12 The World Health Organization has estimated that one billion people faced difficulties in accessing quality basic health services even before the crisis. This large number might increase due to the lack of available funds. C. Rights of women and children 14. The crisis and the economic and social distress caused by it tend to disproportionately affect women and children, especially young girls. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, in its statement issued on 6 February 2009, expressed its concern that, while the scale of the crisis was still largely unmeasured, women and girls in both developed and developing countries would be particularly affected by the potential social and economic consequences, such as unemployment, increase of responsibilities both at work and at home, decrease of income and potential increase in societal and domestic violence. 15. The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, in her statement issued on International Women’s Day (9 March 2009), pointed out that violence against women intensifies when men experience displacement and dispossession related to economic crisis. Referring to analyses by ILO and others, in her report submitted to the eleventh session of the Human Rights Council, she emphasized that the impact of the economic crisis is expected to be more detrimental to women’s employment than to that of men in most regions of the world, and that women migrant and domestic workers have already been 9 10 11 12 GE.10-10930 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The State of Food Insecurity in the World. Economic crises – impacts and lessons learned, 2009, p. 1. A/HRC/12/31, para. 6. A/HRC/10/7, summary and paras. 18 and 49. See http://www.worldbank.org/financialcrisis/. 7