potential beneficiaries about their right to claim benefits and to challenge instances of exclusion, and expand its coverage to all persons living in poverty, including through improving the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction with a view to correctly identifying and reaching out to all persons living in poverty; (b) Increase the amount of the benefits to ensure an adequate standard of living to the beneficiaries; (c) Provide for increased benefits for persons with disabilities so as to enable them to enjoy the Covenant rights; (d) Take all measures necessary to make sure that beneficiaries are able to fulfil the criteria required under the Programme, including by increasing access to schools, health services and other facilities and providing transportation. 45.The Committee is concerned at the high incidence of absolute poverty among small-scale fishers and landless farmers. It is particularly concerned that the livelihood of small-scale fishers has been under threat owing to declining fish stocks in coastal areas as a result of climate change and the encroachment of commercial fishing vessels on fishing zones. It does, however, welcome the amendments to the Fisheries Code of 1998 under Act No. 10654 of 2015, which should bring about improvements in that regard by requiring that preference be given to users in the local communities adjacent or nearest to municipal waters. The Committee is concerned that land-grabbing continues and that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms has now been phased out, despite having been only partly implemented, leaving many farmers landless. Moreover, women farmers were a small minority among the beneficiaries of the agrarian reform owing to their subordinate status within the household (arts. 10 and 11). 46. The Committee urges the State party to take effective measures to address the challenges facing small-scale fishers and landless farmers in securing their livelihoods. The Committee recommends that the State party take all measures necessary to delineate municipal waters and coastal zoning and to improve fishers’ income, guided by the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. It also recommends that the State party take the measures necessary to stop land-grabbing, to facilitate the distribution of land to landless farmers, including by further extending the agrarian reform process launched with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, and to ensure that women are not discriminated against in land distribution. Right to adequate food and nutrition 47.While welcoming the Supplementary Feeding Programme and other measures aimed at reducing malnutrition in the State party, the Committee is concerned that between 13.7 and 15.6 million persons are still undernourished in the Philippines, most of whom live in rural, conflict-affected and disaster-affected areas. Moreover, almost one fifth of children under 5 years of age are underweight and more than 30 per cent suffer from stunting. Almost one quarter of pregnant women, lactating mothers and infants suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. The number of persons who are overweight and obese is increasing (arts. 11 and 12). 48. The Committee recommends that the State party take the steps necessary to address persistent hunger and malnutrition, particularly the critical nutritional needs of children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Referring to its general comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food, it also recommends that the State party adopt the legislative framework protecting the right to adequate food and nutrition and enact the bill providing a framework for the right to adequate food, known as the “zero hunger bill”. It further recommends that the State party fully implement the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition for 2011-2016 and develop a national food and nutrition security strategy, taking into account the 2004 Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security, agreed on by the Member States of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Right to housing 49.The Committee remains concerned that public funding allocated to social housing remains low and that the provision of social housing remains insufficient. Persons with disabilities experience particular difficulties in gaining access to social housing. The Committee is also concerned at the large proportion of the population living in informal settlements in poor living conditions with limited access to basic services and infrastructure, health care and education and under constant threat of eviction. It is further concerned at the substandard living conditions in collective bunkhouses for persons who are internally displaced as a result of natural disasters and armed conflict. Furthermore, it is concerned that the Urban Development and Housing Act legalizes forced evictions and demolitions and that a large number of forced evictions are carried out in the name of urban development. In addition, the Committee is concerned at the inadequate measures taken to provide appropriate relocation sites or adequate compensation to families who are forcibly evicted, who currently have to live in substandard living conditions without infrastructure and basic amenities, health care, education or transport facilities (art. 11). 50. The Committee recommends that the State party take all the measures necessary to increase the public funding allocated to social housing and to provide affordable social housing units for disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and families, including persons with disabilities, and to improve living conditions in informal settlements and collective bunkhouses for internally displaced persons. The Committee urges the State party to amend the Urban Development and Housing Act and to adopt a legal framework establishing procedures to be followed in the case of evictions in line with international standards, including the Committee’s general comment No. 7 (1997) on forced evictions. The Committee requests the State party to indicate, in its next periodic report, the scope and the extent of homelessness in the State party, using data disaggregated by gender, race and other relevant criteria, and to establish an effective means of monitoring the progress achieved in reducing the number of homeless persons. Sexual and reproductive health