Global Hunger Index: The Challenge of Hunger: Civil Services Mentor Magazine - December 2013

GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX: THE CHALLENGE OF HUNGER

2013: Global Hunger Index: The challenge of hunger: building resilience 2013 global hunger index to achieve food and nutrition security

The 2013 Global Hunger Index (GHI), released on 14 October 2013 by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide- revealed that 842 million people were chronically under nourished across the world. The 2013 GHI is calculated for 120 countries, its scores are based on three equally weighted indicators.

The GHI combines three equally weighted indicators into one score:

1. The proportion of people who are undernourished.
2. The proportion of children under five who are underweight.
3. The mortality rate of children younger than age five.

An increase in a country’s GHI score indicates that the hunger situation is worsening, while a decrease in the score indicates improvement in the country’s hunger situation.

Report Highlights

The 2013 Index indicates that global hunger is decreasing; the 2013 world GHI score has fallen by 34 percent from the 1990 GHI score. Yet world hunger still remains “serious,” with 19 countries suffering from levels
of hunger that are either “alarming” or “extremely alarming.”

South Asia has the highest regional GHI score, followed by Africa south of the Sahara while Burundi, Eritrea and Comoros have the highest levels of hunger.

India Performance

  • India has moved from 65 to 63 in the Global Hunger Index, making a marginal improvement since 2012, but continues to suffering far behind other emerging economies.
  • The score for India has improved slightly from 22.9 in 2012 to 21.3 in 2013. Within SAARC countries also, India continued to trail behind Pakistan and Bangladesh on the index.
  • The level of hunger in India remained at ‘alarming levels’and the report also noted that  it is one of the three countries outside Sub-Saharan Africa to  fall in this category. The other two are Haiti and Timor-Leste.
  • India continued to record one of the highest prevalence of children under five who are underweight, at more than 40 per cent.

1. Undernourished population 2010-12: 17.5 Per cent
2. Underweight children <5years 2008-12: 40.2 Per cent
3. Under-5 Mortality 2011: 6.1 Per cent

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