A/HRC/RES/22/9 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 substantial decline in assistance devoted to agriculture since 1980, both in real terms and as a share of total official development assistance, while noting the recent partial inversion of this trend, Recalling the pledges made to increase official development assistance devoted to agriculture, as well as that the realization of the right to food not only entails an increase in productivity but also a holistic approach that includes a focus on smallholder and traditional farmers, in particular women farmers, and groups in the most vulnerable situations, as well as national and international policies that are conducive to the realization of this right, Recognizing the need to increase sustainable private and public investments in agriculture from all relevant sources for the realization of the right to food, Welcoming the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security by the Committee on World Food Security at its thirty-eighth special session and the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at its one hundred and fortyfourth session, in 2012, 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, according to an estimation by the United Nations Children’s Fund, more than one third of the children who die every year before the age of 5 years do so from hunger-related illness, and that, according to an estimation by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the number of people who are undernourished is approximately eight hundred and seventy million worldwide, 98 per cent of them living in developing countries, and that there is an additional one billion people suffering from serious malnutrition, including as a result of the global food crisis, even though, according to the latter organization, the planet could produce enough food to feed twelve billion people; 4. Expresses its concern at the fact that the effects of the world food crisis continue to have serious consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable people, particularly in developing countries, which have been further aggravated by the world financial and economic crisis, and at the particular effects of this crisis on many net foodimporting countries, especially on least developed countries; 5. Also 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; 6. Encourages all States to take action to address de jure and de facto gender inequality and discrimination against women, in particular where it contributes to the malnutrition of women and girls, including measures to ensure the full and equal realization 3