Global Hunger Index

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2022 Global Hunger Index by Severity GHI Map 2022.png
2022 Global Hunger Index by Severity

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool that attempts to measure and track hunger globally as well as by region and by country, prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. [1] The GHI is calculated annually, and its results appear in a report issued in October each year.

Contents

The 2022 Global Hunger Index shows a dramatic hunger situation worldwide. Global progress in ending Hunger is at a near standstill. The main drivers of hunger are conflicts, the climate crisis, and the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. These drivers come on top of underlying factors such as poverty, inequality, and inadequate governance.

Global Hunger Index Report

Created in 2006, the GHI was initially published by the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Germany-based Welthungerhilfe. In 2007, the Irish NGO Concern Worldwide also became a co-publisher. In 2018, IFPRI withdrew from the project and the GHI became a joint project of Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide. [2]

The Global Hunger Index presents a multidimensional measure of national, regional, and global hunger by assigning a numerical score based on several aspects of hunger. Countries are then ranked by GHI score and compared to previous scores from three reference years (e.g., the 2022 GHI scores can be directly compared to 2000, 2007 and 2014 GHI scores) to provide an assessment of progress over time. In addition to presenting GHI scores, the GHI includes an essay that covers an annually changing focus topic related to hunger. The 2022 report focuses on community action that engages local leaders and citizens in improving food systems governance and accountability and provides policy recommendations on how to respond to current emergencies while also transforming food systems, so they are more equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient.

Calculation of GHI scores

Based on the values of the four indicators, a GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming. [3]

GHI scores
LevelValue
Low9.9
Moderate10.0-19.9
Serious20.0-34.9
Alarming35.0-49.9
Extremely alarming≥ 50.0

The GHI combines 4 component indicators:

In 2022, data were assessed for the 136 countries that met the criteria for inclusion in the GHI, and GHI scores were calculated for 121 of those countries based on data from 2017 to 2021. The data used to calculate GHI scores come from published United Nations sources (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Health Organization, UNICEF, and Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation [4] ), the World Bank, and Demographic and Health Surveys.

For 15 countries, individual scores could not be calculated, and ranks could not be determined owing to lack of data. 8 countries were provisionally designated by severity based on other published data. For the remaining 7 countries, data were insufficient to allow for either calculating GHI scores or assigning provisional categories.

In previous years, topics included:

In addition to the yearly GHI, the Hunger Index for the States of India (ISHI) was published in 2008 [19] and the Sub-National Hunger Index for Ethiopia [20] was published in 2009.

An interactive map allows users to visualize the data for different years and zoom into specific regions or countries.

According to the 2022 GHI projections, the world – and 46 countries in particular – will not achieve a low level of hunger by 2030. The situation is likely to worsen in the face of the current barrage of overlapping global crises—conflict, climate change, and the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic—all of which are powerful drivers of hunger. The war in Ukraine has further increased global food, fuel, and fertilizer prices and has the potential to significantly worsen hunger in 2023. The global hunger situation that has improved since 2000 according to the GHI, has largely stagnated in the recent years. The 2022 GHI score for the world is considered moderate, but at 18.2, it shows only a slight decline from the 2014 score of 19.1. While the global GHI score dropped by 5.2 points from 24.3 to 19.1 between 2007 and 2014, it has only decreased 0.9 points since then. After decades of decline, one indicator used in the GHI, the prevalence of undernourishment, shows that the share of people who lack regular access to sufficient calories is increasing. This development could be a sign that other hunger indicators are also reversing.

Hunger is serious in both South Asia (where hunger is highest) and Africa South of the Sahara (where hunger is second highest). South Asia has the world’s highest child stunting and child wasting rates. In Africa South of the Sahara, the prevalence of undernourishment and the rate of child mortality are higher than in any other world region. Parts of East Africa are experiencing one of the most severe droughts of the past 40 years, threatening the survival of millions. In West Asia and North Africa, where hunger is moderate, there are worrying signs of a reversal in progress against hunger. Hunger is considered low in Latin America and the Caribbean, East and Southeast Asia, and Europe and Central Asia. [21]

Country rankings

Country rankings as per the Global Hunger Index. [17]

Legend

  Countries where hunger is low (GHI ≤9.9)
  Countries where hunger is moderate (GHI = 10.0–19.9)
  Countries where hunger is serious (GHI = 20.0–34.9)
  Countries where hunger is alarming (GHI = 35.0–49.9)
  Countries where hunger is extremely alarming (GHI ≥50.0)
Rank 1,2CountryContinentPeriodAverage period decrease
2000200720142022 [22] ActualPercentage
1–17Flag of Belarus.svg  Belarus Europe<5<5<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svg  Bosnia and Herzegovina Europe9.36.6<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Chile.svg  Chile South America<5<5<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China (more info)Asia13.37.8<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia Europe<5<5<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia Europe<5<5<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary Europe5.5<5<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Kuwait.svg  Kuwait Asia<5<5<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Latvia.svg  Latvia Europe5.6<5<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania Europe5.4<5<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Montenegro.svg  Montenegro Europe5.4<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of North Macedonia.svg  North Macedonia Europe7.57.2<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Romania.svg  Romania Europe7.95.85.1<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia Europe6.15.8<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia Europe7.05.95.7<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey Europe10.15.8<5<50.000.00
1–17Flag of Uruguay.svg  Uruguay South America7.46.5<5<50.000.00
18Flag of Costa Rica.svg  Costa Rica North America7.0<5<55.30.000.00
18Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg  United Arab Emirates Asia6.26.5 Increase Negative.svg5.95.30.304.85
20Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil (more info)South America11.47.15.05.4 Increase Negative.svg2.0019.77
21Flag of Uzbekistan.svg  Uzbekistan Asia24.215.48.35.66.2038.33
22Flag of Georgia.svg  Georgia Asia12.37.86.15.72.2021.65
22Flag of Mongolia.svg  Mongolia Asia30.021.89.25.78.1041.06
24Flag of Bulgaria.svg  Bulgaria Europe8.67.97.45.90.9011.58
24Flag of Kazakhstan.svg  Kazakhstan Asia11.211.6 Increase Negative.svg5.85.9 Increase Negative.svg1.7714.90
26Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia Africa10.37.66.76.11.4015.67
27Flag of Albania.svg  Albania Europe14.511.78.96.92.5321.90
28Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 10.17.16.76.41.2313.27
29Flag of Iran.svg  Iran Asia13.77.87.46.52.4020.12
30Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia Asia11.012.2 Increase Negative.svg7.46.71.4312.63
31Flag of Argentina.svg  Argentina South America6.65.55.06.8 Increase Negative.svg−0.07−3.41
32Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria (more info)Africa14.511.48.77.02.5021.53
32Flag of Armenia.svg  Armenia Europe19.312.17.36.94.1327.48
32Flag of Moldova.svg  Moldova Europe18.720.3 Increase Negative.svg6.86.9 Increase Negative.svg3.9318.83
35Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica North America8.88.18.8 Increase Negative.svg7.00.606.59
36Flag of Azerbaijan.svg  Azerbaijan Asia24.915.39.37.55.8032.37
36Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine (famine)Europe13.07.27.27.5 Increase Negative.svg1.8313.48
38Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia South America10.911.2 Increase Negative.svg8.67.61.1010.70
38Flag of Peru.svg  Peru South America20.615.07.67.64.3325.51
40Flag of Kyrgyzstan (2023).svg  Kyrgyzstan Asia18.013.69.47.83.4024.12
41Flag of Paraguay.svg  Paraguay South America11.611.48.18.01.2010.64
42Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico (more info)North America10.28.57.08.1 Increase Negative.svg0.706.20
42Flag of Panama.svg  Panama North America18.614.09.48.13.5023.81
44Flag of El Salvador.svg  El Salvador North America14.712.110.48.42.1016.99
45Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg  Dominican Republic North America15.013.99.88.82.0715.68
46Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago North America11.010.78.89.0 Increase Negative.svg0.676.07
47Flag of Fiji.svg  Fiji Oceania9.58.59.3 Increase Negative.svg9.20.100.73
47Flag of Morocco.svg  Morocco Africa15.812.49.69.22.2016.09
49Flag of Turkmenistan.svg  Turkmenistan Asia20.414.610.69.53.6322.07
50Flag of Suriname.svg  Suriname South America15.111.310.010.2 Increase Negative.svg1.6311.56
51Flag of Guyana.svg  Guyana South America17.115.812.410.42.2315.08
52Flag of Lebanon.svg  Lebanon Asia11.611.28.710.5 Increase Negative.svg0.371.69
53Flag of Jordan.svg  Jordan Asia10.87.57.410.6 Increase Negative.svg0.07−3.78
54Flag of Cape Verde.svg  Cape Verde Africa15.311.912.1 Increase Negative.svg11.81.177.67
55Flag of Vietnam.svg  Vietnam 26.321.415.411.94.8023.13
56Flag of Thailand.svg  Thailand Asia18.612.111.912.0 Increase Negative.svg2.2011.92
57Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt Africa18.117.612.712.31.9311.25
58Flag of Malaysia.svg  Malaysia Asia15.413.810.912.5 Increase Negative.svg0.975.58
59Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa Africa18.117.212.712.9 Increase Negative.svg1.739.85
60Flag of Oman.svg  Oman Asia14.711.511.513.0 Increase Negative.svg0.572.91
61Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg  Bolivia South America27.722.014.713.24.8321.32
62Flag of Honduras.svg  Honduras North America21.819.214.113.42.8014.48
62Flag of Mauritius.svg  Mauritius Africa15.314.113.013.4 Increase Negative.svg0.634.19
64Flag of Nicaragua.svg  Nicaragua North America22.417.915.513.62.9315.25
64Flag of Sri Lanka.svg  Sri Lanka Asia21.718.917.313.62.7014.25
66Flag of Iraq.svg  Iraq Asia23.820.816.613.73.3716.76
67Flag of Ghana.svg  Ghana Africa28.522.115.513.94.8720.88
67Flag of Tajikistan.svg  Tajikistan (famine)Asia40.332.920.613.98.8029.42
69Flag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines (more info)Asia25.019.518.814.83.4015.62
70Flag of Ecuador.svg  Ecuador South America19.718.611.715.2 Increase Negative.svg1.504.26
71Flag of Myanmar.svg  Myanmar Asia39.929.417.915.68.1026.09
71Flag of Senegal.svg  Senegal Africa34.222.817.615.66.2022.50
73Flag of Eswatini.svg  Eswatini Africa24.722.918.416.32.8012.78
74Flag of Cote d'Ivoire.svg  Ivory Coast Africa33.435.8 Increase Negative.svg22.716.85.5318.47
75Flag of Cambodia.svg  Cambodia Asia41.126.120.117.18.0024.80
76Flag of Gabon.svg  Gabon Africa20.920.316.517.2 Increase Negative.svg1.235.78
77Flag of Indonesia.svg  Indonesia Asia26.129.1 Increase Negative.svg22.217.92.7310.53
78Flag of Namibia.svg  Namibia Africa25.426.8 Increase Negative.svg22.918.72.239.13
79Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala North America28.424.121.718.83.2012.82
80Flag of Cameroon.svg  Cameroon Africa35.829.921.418.95.6318.86
81Flag of Nepal.svg    Nepal Asia37.030.021.219.15.9719.39
82Flag of Laos.svg  Laos 44.231.422.519.28.3323.99
83Flag of the Solomon Islands.svg  Solomon Islands Oceania20.118.122.3 Increase Negative.svg19.40.23−0.08
84Flag of Bangladesh.svg  Bangladesh (more info)(famine)Asia33.931.126.319.64.7716.39
85Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela (more info)South America14.610.18.119.9 Increase Negative.svg−1.77−31.69
86Flag of Botswana.svg  Botswana Africa27.725.820.520.02.579.95
87Flag of The Gambia.svg  Gambia Africa29.026.522.720.72.7710.59
87Flag of Malawi.svg  Malawi (more info)(famine)Africa43.332.524.120.77.5321.63
87Flag of Mauritania.svg  Mauritania Africa31.828.326.320.73.7013.12
90Flag of Djibouti.svg  Djibouti Africa44.335.827.421.57.6021.39
91Flag of Benin.svg  Benin (more info)Africa33.826.923.221.74.0313.54
92Flag of Togo.svg  Togo Africa39.330.226.122.85.5016.46
93Flag of Mali.svg  Mali Africa41.735.726.123.26.1717.46
94Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya Africa36.631.121.623.5 Increase Negative.svg4.3712.26
95Flag of Tanzania.svg  Tanzania (more info)Africa40.830.925.523.65.7316.40
96Flag of Burkina Faso.svg  Burkina Faso (more info)Africa44.934.526.524.56.8017.97
97Flag of North Korea.svg  North Korea (famine)Asia39.519-627.5 Increase Negative.svg24.90.87−210.05
98Flag of Angola.svg  Angola Africa64.944.726.225.913.0024.55
99Flag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan Asia36.832.129.626.13.5710.79
100Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg  Papua New Guinea Oceania33.629.929.026.32.437.78
101Flag of the Comoros.svg  Comoros Africa39.531.729.126.94.2011.84
102Flag of Rwanda.svg  Rwanda Africa49.935.929.527.27.5717.89
103Flag of Nigeria.svg  Nigeria (more info)Africa40.432.128.427.34.3711.98
104Flag of Ethiopia.svg  Ethiopia (more info)(famine)Africa53.642.627.427.6 Increase Negative.svg8.6718.49
105Flag of the Republic of the Congo.svg  Congo 34.733.725.328.1 Increase Negative.svg2.205.58
106Flag of Sudan.svg  Sudan (famine)Africa29.328.80.000.00
107Flag of India.svg  India (more info)(famine)Asia38.836.328.229.1 Increase Negative.svg3.238.52
108Flag of Zambia.svg  Zambia Africa53.346.035.229.38.0017.98
109Flag of the Taliban.svg  Afghanistan (more info)Asia50.338.730.629.96.8015.43
110Flag of East Timor.svg  East Timor Asia45.533.330.60.000.00
111Flag of Guinea-Bissau.svg  Guinea-Bissau Africa37.731.030.230.8 Increase Negative.svg2.306.12
112Flag of Sierra Leone.svg  Sierra Leone Africa57.551.133.131.58.6717.06
113Flag of Lesotho.svg  Lesotho Africa32.729.129.3 Increase Negative.svg32.4 Increase Negative.svg0.10−0.09
113Flag of Liberia.svg  Liberia Africa48.239.034.832.45.2712.25
115Flag of Niger.svg  Niger Africa52.539.032.832.66.6314.07
116Flag of Haiti.svg  Haiti North America40.941.7 Increase Negative.svg32.632.7 Increase Negative.svg2.736.52
*Flag of Guinea.svg  Guinea Africa20-34.9*0.000.00
*Flag of Mozambique.svg  Mozambique (more info)Africa20-34.9*0.000.00
*Flag of Uganda.svg  Uganda Africa20-34.9*0.000.00
*Flag of Zimbabwe.svg  Zimbabwe (more info)(famine)Africa20-34.9*0.000.00
117Flag of Chad.svg  Chad (more info)(famine)Africa50.749.040.737.24.509.63
118Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.svg  DR Congo 48.043.238.737.83.407.58
119Flag of Madagascar.svg  Madagascar (more info)Africa42.537.237.3 Increase Negative.svg38.7 Increase Negative.svg1.272.82
120Flag of the Central African Republic.svg  Central African Republic Africa48.846.844.644.01.603.38
121Flag of Yemen.svg  Yemen (famine)Asia41.338.441.7 Increase Negative.svg45.1 Increase Negative.svg−1.27−3.24
*Flag of Burundi.svg  Burundi Africa35-49.9*0.000.00
*Flag of Somalia.svg  Somalia (famine)Africa35-49.9*0.000.00
*Flag of South Sudan.svg  South Sudan Africa35-49.9*0.000.00
*Flag of Syria.svg  Syria (more info)(famine)Asia35-49.9*0.000.00

Note:As always, rankings and index scores from this table cannot be accurately compared to rankings and index scores from previous reports.

1Ranked according to 2022 GHI scores. Countries that have identical scores are given the same ranking (for example, Costa Rica and United Arab Emirates are both ranked 18th).

2The 17 countries with 2022 GHI scores of less than 5 are not assigned individual ranks, but rather are collectively ranked 1-17. Differences between their scores are minimal.

*For 15 countries, individual scores could not be calculated, and ranks could not be determined owing to lack of data. Where possible, these countries were provisionally designated by severity: 4 as ''serious'' and 4 as ''alarming''. For 7 countries, provisional designations could not be established.

2022 GHI: Food Systems Transformation and Local Governance

Facing the third global food price crisis in 15 years, it is more obvious than ever that our current food systems are inadequate to end poverty and hunger. The GHI emphasizes that the international community urgently needs to respond to the escalating humanitarian crises - while not losing sight of the need for long-term transformation of food systems.

The GHI 2022 focuses on the way communities, local governments, and civil actors engage with each other to make decisions and allocate resources is key to improving the food situation for people, and especially for the most vulnerable ones. It emphasizes the power of communities on a local level to shape how their food systems are governed.

In her essay, Danielle Resnick explains that a recent trend toward decentralizing government functions has given local governments greater autonomy and authority, including over key elements of food systems. And in fragile states local or informal sources of governance, such as traditional authorities, may have greater credibility with communities. Yet in several countries, civic spaces are subject to increasing repression, hindering citizens from claiming and realizing their right to adequate food. Moreover, citizens are often unaware of this right, even if it has been enshrined in national law. Thus, the GHI emphasizes that decision-makers must put inclusive local governance, accountability, and the realization of the right to food at the center of food system transformation.

At the same time, the essay by Danielle Resnick shows how local action can help citizens realize their right to food. It provides promising examples from a variety of settings where citizens are finding ways to amplify their voices in food system debates to improve food systems governance at the local level and hold decision makers accountable for addressing food and nutrition insecurity and hunger. Encouragingly, it points out that examples of empowerment are as visible in fragile contexts with high levels of societal fractionalization as they are in more stable settings with longer traditions of local democracy. These include a range of tools such as systems for tracking government budgets and expenditures, community scorecards for assessing the performance of local governments, and inclusive multistakeholder platforms that engage a range of local actors, including government officials, community groups, and private sector participants, in policy planning.

In summary, the GHI emphasizes that motivated and inclusive governance at all levels that ensure citizens’ participation, action, and oversight is pivotal for meaningful food system transformation that ultimately benefits all people, especially the most vulnerable. All levels of government must include local voices and capacities and promote strong local decision-making structures, with the efforts tailored to the conditions and capacities on the ground. [23]

2021 GHI: Hunger and Food Systems in Conflict Settings

In their essay, guest authors Dan Smith and Caroline Delgado describe how, despite the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, violent conflicts continued to be the main cause of global hunger in 2020. The number of active violent conflicts is increasing, and they are becoming more severe and protracted. They state that the reciprocal linkages between hunger and conflict are widely known. Violent conflict affects nearly all aspects of a food system, from production, harvesting, processing, and transport to commodity supply, financing, marketing, and consumption. Meanwhile, increased food insecurity can fuel violent conflict. Smith and Delgado argue that without a solution to food insecurity, it is difficult to build sustainable peace, and without peace, chances of ending world hunger are minimal.

If progress is to be made in both stemming conflict and fighting hunger, a food security lens must be integrated into peace building and a peace-building lens should be integrated into the effort to create resilient food systems. For this the guest authors propose four priorities: (1) adopt a flexible and agile approach; (2) work through partnerships; (3) pursue integrative ways of working; and (4) break down funding silos.

The 2021 GHI states that even in the midst of conflict and extreme vulnerability, it remains possible to disrupt the destructive links between conflict and hunger and build resilience. By working collaboratively, involved actors—from states and community groups to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies—can build a foundation for food security and sustainable peace. Integrating a peace-building perspective into building resilient food systems and a food security perspective into peace building requires a thorough knowledge of the context and sensitivity to the realities of ongoing conflicts. Thus, the GHI emphasizes the importance of strengthening locally led interventions and taking into account local concerns and aspirations, while building partnerships that bring together different actors and their respective knowledge. Moreover, funding should be provided in a flexible and long-term manner and should be adaptable to contexts that are fluid, fragile, and conflict affected. Finally, the 2021 GHI calls for a more vigorous approach to addressing conflicts at the political level and prosecuting those who use hunger as a weapon of war.

2020 GHI: Linking Health and Sustainable Food Systems

The events of 2020 are laying bare many of the vulnerabilities of the world’s food system in ways that are becoming impossible to ignore. However, by taking an integrated approach to health and food and nutrition security, it may yet be possible to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. A One Health approach, which is based on a recognition of the interconnections between humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment, as well as the role of fair-trade relations, would address the various crises we face holistically and help avert future health crises, restore a healthy planet, and end hunger.

A One Health lens brings into focus a number of weaknesses including the fragility of globalized food systems; underinvestment in local farmers, farmer associations, and smallholder-oriented value chains; increasing rates of diet-related noncommunicable disease; emergency responses that disrupt local food systems; the heavy environmental cost of food systems; inadequate social protection for much of the world’s population; unfair global food governance, including unjust trade and aid policies; and lack of secure land tenure, which results in food insecurity for rural communities, indigenous people, women, and marginalized groups.

To ensure the right to adequate and nutritious food for all and achieve Zero Hunger by 2030, we must approach health and food and nutrition security in a way that considers human, animal, and environmental health and fair-trade relations holistically. Multilateral institutions, governments, communities, and individuals must take a number of actions in the short and long term, including sustaining the production and supply of food; ensuring social protection measures; strengthening regional food supply chains; reviewing food, health, and economic systems through a One Health lens to chart a path to environmental recovery; and working toward a circular food economy that recycles nutrients and materials, regenerates natural systems, and eliminates waste and pollution.

2019 GHI: The Challenge of Hunger and Climate Change

The 2019 GHI report notes that climate change is making it ever more difficult to adequately and sustainably feed and nourish the human population. Climate change has direct and indirect negative impacts on food security and hunger through changes in food production and availability, access, quality, utilization, and stability of food systems. In addition, climate change can contribute to conflict, especially in vulnerable and food-insecure regions, creating a double vulnerability for communities, which are pushed beyond their ability to cope.

Furthermore, climate change raises four key inequities that play out at the interface of climate change and food security:

1. the degree of responsibility for causing climate change

2. the intergenerational impacts of climate change

3. the impacts of climate change on poorer people in the Global South

4. the ability and capacity to deal with climate change impacts

Current actions are inadequate for the scale of the threat that climate change poses to food security. Transformation—a fundamental change in the attributes of human and natural systems—is now recognized as central to climate-resilient development pathways that can achieve zero hunger. Individual and collective values and behaviors must push toward sustainability and a fairer balance of political, cultural, and institutional power in society.

2018 GHI: Forced Migration and Hunger

The 2018 Global Hunger Index (GHI) report—the 13th in the annual series—presents a multidimensional measure of national, regional, and global hunger by assigning a numerical score based on several aspects of hunger. It then ranks countries by GHI score and compares current scores with past results. The 2018 report shows that in many countries and in terms of the global average, hunger and undernutrition have declined since 2000; in some parts of the world, however, hunger and undernutrition persist or have even worsened. Since 2010, 16 countries have seen no change or an increase in their GHI levels.

The essay in the 2018 GHI report examines forced migration and hunger—two closely intertwined challenges that affect some of the poorest and most conflict-ridden regions of the world. Globally, there are an estimated 68.5 million displaced people, including 40.0 million internally displaced people, 25.4 million refugees, and 3.1 million asylum seekers. For these people, hunger may be both a cause and a consequence of forced migration.

Support for food-insecure displaced people needs to be improved in four key areas:

• recognizing and addressing hunger and displacement as political problems;

• adopting more holistic approaches to protracted displacement settings involving development support;

• providing support to food-insecure displaced people in their regions of origin; and

• recognizing that the resilience of displaced people is never entirely absent and should be the basis for providing support.

The 2018 Global Hunger Index report presents recommendations for providing a more effective and holistic response to forced migration and hunger. These include focusing on those countries and groups of people who need the most support, providing long-term solutions for displaced people, and engaging in greater responsibility sharing at an international level.

2017 GHI: The Inequalities of Hunger

The 2017 highlights the uneven nature of progress made in reducing hunger worldwide and the ways in which inequalities of power lead to unequal nourishment.

Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ aim of “leaving no one behind” demands approaches to hunger and malnutrition that are both more sensitive to their uneven distribution and more attuned to the power inequalities that intensify the effects of poverty and marginalization on malnutrition. The report emphasizes the importance of using power analysis to name all forms of power that keep people hungry and malnourished; the significance of designing interventions strategically focused on where power is exerted; the need to empower the hungry and malnourished to challenge and resist loss of control over the food they eat.

2016 GHI: Getting to Zero Hunger

The 2016 Global Hunger Index (GHI) presents a multidimensional measure of national, regional, and global hunger, focusing on how the world can get to Zero Hunger by 2030.

The developing world has made substantial progress in reducing hunger since 2000. The 2016 GHI shows that the level of hunger in developing countries as a group has fallen by 29 percent. Yet this progress has been uneven, and great disparities in hunger continue to exist at the regional, national, and subnational levels.

The 2016 GHI emphasizes that the regions, countries, and populations most vulnerable to hunger and undernutrition have to be identified, so improvement can be targeted there, if the world community wants to seriously Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger and achieving food security.

2015 GHI: Armed Conflict and Chronic Hunger

The chapter on hunger and conflict shows that the time of great famines with more than 1 million people dead is over. There is, however, a clear connection between armed conflict and severe hunger. Most of the countries scoring worst in the 2015 GHI are experiencing or have recently experienced armed conflict. Still, severe hunger also exists without conflict present, as the cases of several countries in South Asia and Africa show.

Armed conflict has increased since 2005, and unless it can be reduced, there is little hope for eliminating hunger.

2014 GHI: Hidden Hunger

Hidden hunger concerns over 200 million people worldwide. This micronutrient deficiency develops when humans do not take in enough micronutrients such as zinc, folate, iron and vitamins, or when their bodies cannot absorb them. Reasons include an unbalanced diet, a higher need for micronutrients (e.g. during pregnancy or while breast feeding) but also health issues related to sickness, infections or parasites.

The consequences for individuals can be devastating: these often include mental impairment, bad health, low productivity and death caused by sickness. In particular, children are affected if they do not absorb enough micronutrients in the first 1000 days of their lives (beginning with conception).

Micronutrient deficiencies are responsible for an estimated 1.1 million of the yearly 3.1 million death caused by undernutrition in children. Despite the magnitude of the problem, it is still not easy to get precise data on the spread of hidden hunger. Macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies cause a loss in global productivity of 1.4 to 2.1 billion US Dollars per year. [24]

Different measures exist to prevent hidden hunger. It is essential to ensure that humans maintain a diverse diet. The quality of produce is as important as the caloric input. This can be achieved by promoting the production of a wide variety of nutrient-rich plants and the creation of house gardens.

Other possible solutions are the industrial enrichment of food or biofortification of feedplants (e.g. vitamin A rich sweet potatoes).

In the case of acute nutrient deficiency and in specific life phases, food supplements can be used. In particular, the addition of vitamin A leads to a better child survival rate.

Generally, the situation concerning hidden hunger can only be improved when many measures intermesh. In addition to the direct measures described above, this includes the education and empowerment of women, the creation of better sanitation and adequate hygiene, and access to clean drinking water and health services.

2013 GHI: Resilience to Build Food and Nutrition Security

Many of the countries in which the hunger situation is "alarming" or "extremely alarming" are particularly prone to crises: In the African Sahel people experience yearly droughts. On top of that, they have to deal with violent conflict and natural calamities. At the same time, the global context becomes more and more volatile (financial and economic crises, food price crises).

The inability to cope with these crises leads to the destruction of many development successes that had been achieved over the years. In addition, people have even less resources to withstand the next shock or crises. 2.6 billion people in the world live on less than US$2 per day. For them, a sickness in the family, crop failure after a drought, or the interruption of remittances from relatives who live abroad can set in motion a downward spiral from which they cannot free themselves on their own.

It is therefore not enough to support people in emergencies and, once the crisis is over, to start longer-term development efforts. Instead, emergency and development assistance has to be conceptualized with the goal of increasing resilience of poor people against these shocks.

The Global Hunger Index differentiates three coping strategies. The lower the intensity of the crises, the less resources have to be used to cope with the consequences:

Based on this analysis, the authors present several policy recommendations:

2012 GHI: Pressures on Land, Water, and Energy Resources

Increasingly, hunger is related to how we use land, water, and energy. The growing scarcity of these resources puts more and more pressure on food security. Several factors contribute to an increasing shortage of natural resources:

  1. Demographic change: The world population is expected to be over 9 billion by 2050. Additionally, more and more people live in cities. Urban populations feed themselves differently than inhabitants of rural areas; they tend to consume less staple foods and more meat and dairy products.
  2. Higher income and non-sustainable use of resources: As the global economy grows, wealthy people consume more food and goods, which have to be produced with a lot of water and energy. They can afford not to be efficient and wasteful in their use of resources.
  3. Bad policies and weak institutions: When policies, for example energy policy, are not tested for the consequences they have on the availability of land and water it can lead to failures. An example are the biofuel policies of industrialized countries: As corn and sugar are increasingly used for the production of fuels, there is less land and water for the production of food.

Signs for an increasing scarcity of energy, land and water resources are for example: growing prices for food and energy, a massive increase of large-scale investment in arable land (so-called land grabbing), increasing degradation of arable land because of too intensive land use (for example, increasing desertification), increasing number of people, who live in regions with lowering ground water levels, and the loss of arable land as a consequence of climate change.

The analysis of the global conditions lead the authors of the GHI 2012 to recommend several policy actions: [25]

2011 GHI: Rising and Volatile Food Prices

The report cites 3 factors as the main reasons for high volatility, or price changes, and price spikes of food:

Volatility and prices increases are worsened according to the report by the concentration of staple foods in a few countries and export restrictions of these goods, the historical low of worldwide cereal reserves and the lack of timely information on food products, reserves and price developments. Especially this lack of information can lead to overreactions in the markets. Moreover, seasonal limitations on production possibilities, limited land for agricultural production, limited access to fertilizers and water, as well as the increasing demand resulting from population growth, puts pressure on food prices.

According to the Global Hunger Index 2011 price trends show especially harsh consequences for poor and under-nourished people, because they are not capable to react to price spikes and price changes. Reactions, following these developments, can include: reduced calorie intake, no longer sending children to school, riskier income generation such as prostitution, criminality, or searching landfills, and sending away household members, who cannot be fed anymore. In addition, the report sees an all-time high in the instability and unpredictability of food prices, which after decades of slight decrease, increasingly show price spikes (strong and short-term increase).

At a national level, especially food importing countries (those with a negative food trade balance), are affected by the changing prices.

2010 GHI: Early Childhood Undernutrition

Undernutrition among children has reached terrible levels. About 195 million children under the age of five in the developing world—about one in three children—are too small and thus underdeveloped. Nearly one in four children under age five—129 million—is underweight, and one in 10 is severely underweight. The problem of child undernutrition is concentrated in a few countries and regions, with more than 90 percent of stunted children living in Africa and Asia. 42% of the world's undernourished children live in India alone.

The evidence presented in the report [26] [27] shows that the window of opportunity for improving nutrition spans is the 1,000 days between conception and a child's second birthday (that is the period from -9 to +24 months). Children who are do not receive adequate nutrition during this period have increased risks to experiencing lifelong damage, including poor physical and cognitive development, poor health, and even early death. The consequences of malnutrition that occurred after 24 months of a child's life are by contrast largely reversible.

See also

Literature

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Food Programme</span> Food-assistance branch of the United Nations

The World Food Programme (WFP) is an international organization within the United Nations that provides food assistance worldwide. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and the leading provider of school meals. Founded in 1961, WFP is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries. As of 2021, it supported over 128 million people across more than 120 countries and territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunger</span> Sustained inability to eat sufficient food

In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In the field of hunger relief, the term hunger is used in a sense that goes beyond the common desire for food that all humans experience, also known as an appetite. The most extreme form of hunger, when malnutrition is widespread, and when people have started dying of starvation through lack of access to sufficient, nutritious food, leads to a declaration of famine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food security</span> Measure of the availability and accessibility of food

Food security is the availability of food in a country and the ability of individuals within that country (region) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. The availability of food irrespective of class, gender or region is another element of food security. Similarly, household food security is considered to exist when all the members of a family, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Individuals who are food-secure do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Food insecurity, on the other hand, is defined as "limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate, safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways." Food security incorporates a measure of resilience to future disruption or unavailability of critical food supply due to various risk factors including droughts, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malnutrition</span> Medical condition

Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues and form. Malnutrition is not receiving the correct amount of nutrition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Food Policy Research Institute</span>

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center founded in 1975 to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations in agricultural technology. Additionally, IFPRI was meant to shed more light on the role of agricultural and rural development in the broader development pathway of a country. The mission of IFPRI is to provide research-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.

Food politics is a term which encompasses not only food policy and legislation, but all aspects of the production, control, regulation, inspection, distribution and consumption of commercially grown, and even sometimes home grown, food. The commercial aspects of food production are affected by ethical, cultural, and health concerns, as well as environmental concerns about farming and agricultural practices and retailing methods. The term also encompasses biofuels, GMO crops and pesticide use, the international food market, food aid, food security and food sovereignty, obesity, labor practices and immigrant workers, issues of water usage, animal cruelty, and climate change.

Nutrition transition is the shift in dietary consumption and energy expenditure that coincides with economic, demographic, and epidemiological changes. Specifically the term is used for the transition of developing countries from traditional diets high in cereal and fiber to more Western-pattern diets high in sugars, fat, and animal-source food.

The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development, and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, distribution, and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps. Food systems fall within agri-food systems, which encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities in the primary production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as in food storage, aggregation, post-harvest handling, transportation, processing, distribution, marketing, disposal, and consumption. A food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic, technological and environmental contexts. It also requires human resources that provide labor, research and education. Food systems are either conventional or alternative according to their model of food lifespan from origin to plate. Food systems are dependent on a multitude of ecosystem services. For example, natural pest regulations, microorganisms providing nitrogen-fixation, and pollinators.

Despite India's 50% increase in GDP since 2013, more than one third of the world's malnourished children live in India. Among these, half of the children under three years old are underweight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food security in Ethiopia</span> Overview of food security in Ethiopia

Food security is defined, according to the World Food Summit of 1996, as existing "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life". This commonly refers to people having "physical and economic access" to food that meets both their nutritional needs and food preferences. Today, Ethiopia faces high levels of food insecurity, ranking as one of the hungriest countries in the world, with an estimated 5.2 million people needing food assistance in 2010. Ethiopia was ranked 92 in the world in Global Hunger Index 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welthungerhilfe</span>

Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e. V. – or Welthungerhilfe for short – is a German non-denominational and politically independent non-profit and non-governmental aid agency working in the fields of development cooperation and humanitarian assistance. Since its founding in 1962, it has used 4.2 billion euros to carry out more than 10.369 projects in 70 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.[1] Welthungerhilfe holds the Seal of Approval awarded by Deutsches Zentralinstitut für Soziale Fragen (DZI). In 2014, Welthungerhilfe and the aid organization World Vision International were announced the most transparent German organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Webb (nutritionist)</span> British nutritionist

Patrick Webb serves as Chief Nutritionist for the United States Agency for International Development USAID. He was Dean for Academic Affairs at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition from 2005 to 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epidemiology of malnutrition</span> Overview of global nutritional deficiencies

There were 795 million undernourished people in the world in 2014, a decrease of 216 million since 1990, despite the fact that the world already produces enough food to feed everyone—7 billion people—and could feed more than that—12 billion people.

Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing and food distribution. Fluctuation in food prices is determined by a number of compounding factors. Geopolitical events, global demand, exchange rates, government policy, diseases and crop yield, energy costs, availability of natural resources for agriculture, food speculation, changes in the use of soil and weather events directly affect food prices. To a certain extent, adverse price trends can be counteracted by food politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klaus von Grebmer</span> Swiss-German economist

Klaus von Grebmer, descendant of an old Austrian family Grebmer_zu_Wolfsthurn, is a Swiss-German economist and one of the pioneers of the Global Hunger Index. He is currently a Research Fellow Emeritus and Strategic Adviser at the International Food Policy Research Institute since 2012. Klaus von Grebmer joined the International Food Policy Research Institute as Director of the Communications Division in 1999. During 2013 von Grebmer served as acting director for Communications and Marketing at WorldFish.

Hunger in Bangladesh is one of the major issues that affects the citizens of Bangladesh. The nation state of Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and home for more than 160 million people. It progresses immensely in the Human Development Index, particularly in the areas of literacy and life expectancy, but economic inequality has increased and about 32% of the population, that is 50 million people, still live in extreme poverty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable Development Goal 2</span> Global goal to end hunger by 2030

Sustainable Development Goal 2 aims to achieve "zero hunger". It is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The official wording is: "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture". SDG 2 highlights the "complex inter-linkages between food security, nutrition, rural transformation and sustainable agriculture". According to the United Nations, there are around 690 million people who are hungry, which accounts for slightly less than 10 percent of the world population. One in every nine people goes to bed hungry each night, including 20 million people currently at risk of famine in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joachim von Braun</span> German agronomist (born 1950)

Joachim von Braun is a German agricultural scientist and currently director of a department of the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn and President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa; a residence for more than 206 million people. Hunger is one of the major issues that affect the citizens. 40% of the citizens live below the International Poverty Line of $1.90 daily, whilst another 25% are vulnerable. Nigeria was ranked second poorest in food affordability globally by the Institute of Development Studies, United Kingdom.

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