quintiles. The average rate of wasting (weight-to-height ratio) was 1.4 per cent, and the rate did not exceed 3 per cent in any group, thereby suggesting that acute forms of malnutrition are now under greater control in the country. The prevalence of underweight children (according to weight-to-age) was 1.9 per cent nationally, although it reached 4.5 per cent in the case of children with mothers with little schooling and belonging to the lowest income quintile. Low intake of vitamin A was also observed in 17.4 per cent of children under the age of five: the highest prevalence rates were observed in the impoverished north-east (19 per cent) and comparatively wealthier south-east (21.6 per cent). Urban areas also saw higher prevalence rates than rural ones. This data also indicates that nearly 21 per cent of the population, on average, was anaemic and prevalence bore no correlation to income group or race. Considerable regional variations were observed, although the two poorest regions displayed opposite outcomes: the north had the lowest (10.4 per cent) and the north-east the highest (25.5 per cent) levels of prevalence in the country. Urban children were, on average, more at risk of anaemia than rural ones. Lastly, the risk of obesity reached a national average of 7.3 per cent. 8. The monitoring of food insecurity in Brazil has recently been significantly improved by the overhaul of the Food and Nutritional Surveillance System (SISVAN), which monitors the nutritional status and food intake of persons who use the services of the Unified Health System in all age categories. The various methodologies used include SISVAN-Web, a fully integrated national information technology platform that allows basic health units in municipalities throughout the country to provide observation data on child and mother nutrition. The provision of such data has been linked, since 2007, to the monitoring of the Bolsa Família conditionalities. In 2007, 39 per cent of municipalities had submitted some information on the nutritional situation of their population (although these submissions are admittedly not representative samples of the entire population), while among municipalities taking part in the Bolsa Família programme, reporting was much higher, exceeding 76 per cent.[6] In the future, this should allow policymakers to assess progress much more often and in much greater detail. 9. The distinct methodologies employed within the SISVAN framework produce quite different results. The latest regional survey in the northern region[7] reported that tremendous regional and subregional variations subsisted. Although the National Demographic and Health Survey of Infants and Mothers had observed acute malnutrition (low weight-to-age ratio) in 1.7 per cent of children nationwide, in the north, the regional survey revealed that the average rate of acute malnutrition was 3.4 per cent and, in three of the seven northern states, over 8 per cent. With respect to chronic malnutrition (low height-to-age ratio), the national average was 7 per cent, while the average for the northern region was nearly 15 per cent (and around 30 per cent in three of the seven states in this region). This suggests that an adequate and timely picture of the situation of malnutrition requires the use of tools that permit greater refinement in disaggregation, and a constant inflow of updated data. 10. According to data available, real income among the poor has steadily grown since 2002. This is attributed to the steady increase in the minimum wage, at a rate quite above inflation, and to cash-transfer programmes targeting those with the lowest income. 11. Based on the data from the National Household Sample Survey,[8] the evolution of extreme poverty — defined as living with less than US$ 1 (parity purchasing power, PPP) per day — from 1992 to 2008 can be visualized as follows: 12. Using the criterion for moderate income deprivation — the US$ 2 (PPP) poverty line — the decline in poverty is also marked: 13. It is clear from the data available that poverty and malnutrition are still predominantly affecting persons of African, AfroBrazilian and indigenous descent, although the rate of poverty reduction is considerably higher among these groups as they start from much lower levels of income. 14. The remainder of this report examines the remaining challenges to ensuring the full realization of the right to food and the policies put in place by Brazil to remove them. Brazil has placed the fight against hunger at the centre of its development strategy. Since it was adopted, the 2006 law establishing a National Food and Nutritional Security System (SISAN) has been a benchmark for many countries across the world. The law reinstated CONSEA (which ensures the active participation of civil society in drafting recommendations to the Government); it improved the coordination of the variety of programmes set up under the “Zero Hunger” strategy, as well as the accountability of the agencies responsible for implementing these programmes; and it provided that an interministerial taskforce would develop a national policy and plan on food and nutritional security. The participatory nature of these programmes, particularly shown through the work of CONSEA, are remarkable, and the success of Brazil in combating hunger and malnutrition, particularly child malnutrition, bears witness to the contribution that such participatory strategies can make to fulfilling such an objective. III. The obligation to respect the right to food 15. The obligation to respect existing access to adequate food requires States not to take any measures that result in preventing such access.[9] This requires that remedies be available to victims of violations of the right to food that stem from the adoption of such measures by States. 1. The legal protection of the right to food 16. On 3 February 2010, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies cast the final vote needed to amend the Constitution in order to guarantee the right to food. The adoption of the amendment further confirms the leading role of Brazil in ensuring the legal and institutional implementation of the right to food. Such an amendment is particularly important since the courts appear reluctant to apply the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights directly, despite the clear constitutional mandate under article 5, paragraph 3, of the Constitution that obliges them to recognize the applicability in the domestic legal order of international human rights treaties.[10] The Special Rapporteur was impressed by the degree of involvement of civil society organizations in the process of constitutional amendment.