7. THE RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF LIVING Article 11 (1) The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent. (2) The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international cooperation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed: (a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources; (b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need. 7.1 Understanding the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living 7.1.1 Concept and Content The right to an adequate standard of living has a broad meaning and includes rights other than those listed in Article 11(1) of the ICESCR, such as the rights to health, education, and transportation.184 In its approach to this right, the CESCR has focused on other rights emanating from, and indispensable to, the realization of the right to an adequate standard of living. In particular, the CESCR has emphasized the rights to housing, food and water, as opposed to the right to an adequate standard of living as such.185 The Human Rights Council has also affirmed that the right to safe drinking water and sanitation are “derived from the right to an adequate standard of living and inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as well as the right to life and human dignity”186 In its Reporting Guidelines, the CESCR has established a number of quantitative indicators for evaluating the progressive realisation of the right to an adequate standard of living, including: (1) information on the current standard of living of a given population, in respect to both the aggregate standard of living, and that of different socio-economic, cultural, and other groups within the society; (2) the per capita Gross National Product for the poorest 40 per cent of a given population, as well as information on a country’s poverty line; and (3) a country’s Physical Quality of Life Index, which uses as measurements life expectancy, infant mortality and literacy rates.187 54