A/RES/73/171 The right to food the crisis on many net food-importing countries, especially the least developed countries; 5. Expresses its deep concern that, according to the report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations entitled The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018, the number of hungry people in the world is unacceptably high, the vast majority of hungry people live in developing countries and the number of undernourished people in the world has been on the rise since 2016, reaching an estimated 821 million in 2017; 6. Also expresses its deep concern that, while women contribute more than 50 per cent of the food produced worldwide, they also account for 7 0 per cent of the world’s hungry, 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 an d preventable childhood diseases, and that it is estimated that almost twice as many women as men suffer from malnutrition; 7. Encourages all States to mainstream a gender perspective in food security programmes and to take action to address de jure and de facto gender inequality and discrimination against women, in particular when they contribute to the malnutrition of women and girls, including measures to ensure the full and equal realization of the right to food and that women have equal access to reso urces, including income, land and water and their ownership and agricultural inputs, as well as full and equal access to health care, education, science and technology, to enable them to feed themselves and their families, and in this regard stresses the need to empower women and strengthen their role in decision-making; 8. Encourages the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the right to food to continue to mainstream a gender perspective in the fulfilment of her mandate, and encourages the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and all other United Nations bodies and mechanisms addressing the right to food and food insecurity and malnutrition to continue to integrate a gender perspective into their relevant policies, programmes and activities; 9. Reaffirms the need to ensure that programmes delivering safe and nutritious food are inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities; 10. 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 of national and regional efforts by providing the assistance necessary to increase food production and access to food, including through agricultural development assistance, the transfer of technology, food crop rehabilitation assistance and food aid, ensuring food security, with special attention to the specific needs of women and girls, and promoting innovation, support for the development of adapted technologies, research on rural advisory services and support for access to financing services, and ensure support for the establishment of secure land tenure systems; 11. Calls upon all States and, if appropriate, relevant international organizations to take measures and support programmes that are aimed at combating undernutrition in mothers, in particular during pregnancy, and in children, and the irreversible effects of chronic undernutrition in early childhood , in particular from birth to the age of 2 years; 12. Also calls upon all States and, where appropriate, relevant international organizations to implement policies and programmes to reduce and eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity, as a result of malnutrition, of children under 5 years of age, and in this regard urges States to disseminate the technical guidance 6/11 18-22267