A/HRC/13/33/Add.4 per cent of all Guatemalan children aged under five are malnourished. The latter figure rises to 58.6 per cent (or more, according to some estimates) among indigenous children.10 12. Since 2008, Guatemala has been severely affected by the global food price and economic crises. While overall poverty had been reduced from 56 per cent in 2000 to 51 per cent in 2006, it is estimated that the impacts of both the high food prices in 2007-2008 and the global economic crisis have offset this 5 per cent gain.11 Likewise, GDP growth decelerated to 4 per cent in 2008 following steady annual increases from 2.4 per cent to 6.3 per cent between 2001 and 2007, with GDP per capita increasing from US$ 1,625 to US$ 2,519 in the same period. Remittances from abroad, which represent approximately 12 per cent of GDP,12 decreased by 10 per cent as a direct result of the crisis, while revenues from tourism, foreign direct investment and overall trade flows also declined. In this context, Guatemalan families currently spend 66 per cent of their income on food.13 13. The third national census measuring the height of first-grade primary school children in Guatemala’s public education system, conducted in August 2008, provides a further indication of the structural nature of malnutrition, its linkages with inequity and social exclusion, and the additional adverse impact of the food and economic crises. Of 459,808 children measured, 54.4 per cent were classified as having a normal height for their age, while the height for age ratio of the remaining 45.6 per cent was below the median, with moderate deficiencies registered among 32.9 per cent and severe cases among 12.7 per cent. Figures change according to the mother tongue of the children. Spanish mother tongue children had a 34.6 per cent prevalence of height to age deficiencies, while this figure goes up to 62.5 per cent in the case of children whose mother tongue is not Spanish. Within the latter group those speaking Chorti (80.7 per cent), Akateco (79.1 per cent) and Ixil (76.9 per cent) portray the highest level of chronic malnutrition based on their below average height.14 14. In addition to these already extremely high malnutrition rates, the visit of the Special Rapporteur took place as Guatemala was facing a particularly acute crisis. A drought linked to the El Niño phenomenon caused a significant loss of crops in particular in the region known as the corredor seco (dry corridor) affecting up to 2.5 million people and causing the death of at least 17 children from severe acute malnutrition.15 This led the World Food Programme to pledge 20 tons of high energy biscuits and 200 tons of other food supplies in order to complement Government rations assisting 75,000 families. On 10 September, President Álvaro Colom issued Decree n. 10-2009 declaring a “state of calamity” in the 10 11 12 13 14 15 6 Encuesta Nacional de Salud Materno-Infantil (ENSMI), 2008-2009, pp 52-53. See also Samuel Loewenberg, “Guatemala’s nutrition crisis”, The Lancet, vol. 374 (July 2009), p. 187. The transmission from international prices to prices on the domestic market was very indirect, however net food buyers did lose out from the price increases of staple crops, including marginal and medium-size farmers. See Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet, working paper “The global food crisis and Guatemala: what crisis and for whom?”, University of California at Berkeley, May 2009. Data from the Banco de Guatemala, 2009. Centro Internacional para Investigaciones en Derechos Humanos/Coordinación de ONG Cooperativas, Situación de los Derechos Económicos, Sociales, Culturales y Ambientales en Guatemala 2009, p.29. Tercer Censo Nacional de Talla Escolar en Escolares del Primer Grado de Educación Primaria del Sector Oficial de la República de Guatemala, 2008, Ministerio de Educación y Secretaría de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional (SESAN). Secretaría de Planificación y Programación de la Presidencia (SEGEPLAN), “Informe de avance de las acciones y medidas adoptadas durante la emergencia”, November 2009.