A/64/279 C. The right to health 31. One result of poorer nutrition is that the health status of persons living in poverty is likely to deteriorate, with effects that are very difficult to reverse. Two factors should be taken into account. First, the 2007-2008 food price crisis has already aggravated the health status of many. 18 Second, income shortages and income insecurity, coupled with an absence of social assistance measures, worsen the situation. 32. It is, at this stage, too early to identify specific elements of deteriorating health status due to this crisis, but data on the impact of the food price crisis are becoming available and the experience of other crises suggests that these are reliable indicators. In Indonesia, the use of public health services during the 1997 economic crisis fell from 7.4 per cent to 5.6 per cent among adults and from 26 per cent to 20 per cent among children between 1997 and 1998. 19 It can be expected that a similar phenomenon will develop as a result of the current crisis in some developing countries. As of May 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) had already recorded reduced expenditure in the health system budgets in 16 countries. 20 D. The right to housing 33. The collapse of housing markets in developed countries triggered the current crisis. As a result of globalization of the housing and real estate finance markets and economic adjustment policies, cities had in recent years become unaffordable for inhabitants of lower-income groups. Limited access to credit, coupled with soaring unemployment rates, increases the challenges for those seeking housing, in particular those living in poverty. 21 34. The crisis has also had an immediate impact on security of tenure, for both owners and renters, particularly in countries more directly affected by the housing market collapse. Foreclosure has meant the loss of the home, often resulting in homelessness or inadequate living conditions. E. The right to education 35. Despite progress towards the achievement of universal primary education coverage, the recent report on the Millennium Development Goals indicates that 10 per cent of the children of primary school age are out of school, and that the pace of progress in enrolment is not adequate to the achievement of the target in 2015. The crisis increases the challenges, as improvements in enrolment have frequently been associated with increases in national spending on education, which could be reversed as national budgets tighten. 36. In previous crises, children from the poorest households have been the ones most affected by the economic downturn. Poor families often prioritize other __________________ 18 19 20 21 09-45276 http://www.who.int/food_crisis/global_food_crisis/en/index.html. See “Social health protection” available at http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ILC2009/TD9/ Evans%20TD9.pdf. Ibid. See A/HRC/10/7. 9