Global hunger Index 2021 (GHI)

Global hunger Index 2021 (GHI)

When Released: 14^th October 2021

Who Released: GHI 2021 report is Jointly released by  Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.

India Rank: 101^st

Top Rank: Belarus

In Global Hunger Index 2021, India Ranks 101 out of 116 countries. INDIA has slipped 7th Place from the last year 2020 ranked 94^th among 107 countries. INDIA scores 27.5 out of 100 and It has a level of hunger that is Serious.

The GHI report is published annually each year in October Month. The aim of the GHI report is to activate the required action to reduce hunger around the world.

What is Meant by Hunger?

The problem of hunger is complex and different terms are used for it.  Hunger is usually understood to refer to the lack of sufficient calories intake. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) defines Food deficiency or undernourishment, as the consumption of too few calories to provide the minimum amount of dietary energy to each individual requires to live a healthy and productive life, given that person’s sex, age, stature, and physical activity level.

About Global Hunger Index :

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool, that measures and tracks hunger across the globe as well as region and by country. This is prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.

The GHI was started to publish in 2006 and It 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 Stepped down from its involvement in the project and the GHI became a joint project of Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.

The GHI uses the four key Indicators to evaluate the Global Hunger Index and measure the progress towards Zero Hunger by 2030 at Global, National, and Regional levels.

Based on the Four key indicators, the GHI accesses the level of hunger in a country on a 100-point Scale wherein a score 100 is the worst (extreme hunger) and a score of 0 is the best (Low or No hunger)

Four key Indicators for GHI:

• Undernourishment: The share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient). Data are taken from the UN FAO (Food and agriculture organization).
• Child Wasting: The share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height. It reflects acute undernutrition. (Data are used from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), The World Bank, and the Demographic and health Survey Programs. )
• Child Stunting: The share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their age. It reflects Chronic Undernutrition. (Data are used from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), The World Bank, and the Demographic and health Survey Programs (DHS).
• Child Mortality: The mortality rate of children under age five ( in part a reflection of a Fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments). Data are used from the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGEM).

Major Factors for Driving Hunger :

Below are the three factors that majorly threatened any progress that has been made against hunger in recent years.

• Increase in severe and long war conflicts
• Drastic Climate Change, is associated with extreme weather.
• COVID-19 Pandemic consequences. It has increased the challenges on the health and Economic front

Global Hunger Index 2021: Global Context:

Current Projections based on Global Hunger Index (GHI) show that the World as a whole and  47 countries, in particular, will fail to achieve even low Hunger by 2030 and that will affect achieving the SDG (Sustainable Development goal) of Zero Hunger by 2030.

Key Points :

• Fight Against Hunger is Dangerously off track. Based on the current GHI projection, the World as a whole and 47 countries, in particular, will fail to achieve a low-level hunger by 2030.
• GHI report scores show that global hunger is on the decline since 2000, but Progress is slowing. GHI report scores for the world fell 4.7 points, from 25.1 to 20.4 between 2006 to 2012 and since 2012, it has fallen just 2.5 points.
• Worsening Conflicts, Climate Change, and the COVID-19 pandemic are the Driving factor to threaten the progress to reduce Hunger levels globally.
• For the 2021 GHI report data were accessed of 135 countries and out of these, there were sufficient data available for 116 countries to calculate and ranked in GHI 2021 report. In the 2020 GHI report, 107 countries were ranked.
• As per the GHI report 2021, Belarus is top-ranked and the score is less than five (<5). In total 18 countries score less than five and met the low level of Hunger.
• As per GHI 2021 report, Low ranked country is Somalia and ranked 116. It has scored 50.8 and it is under extremely alarming hunger conditions.

Global Hunger Index 2021: INDIA Context:

• India Ranked 101^st this year and it has fallen from ranking 94th last year that is 2020
• India ranked is behind the South and southern Asian neighboring countries ranked Nepal  77^th, Bangladesh 76^th, Sri Lanka 65^th, Myanmar 71^st, Pakistan 91^st, and China 5^th.
• As per GHI 2021 report, the Wasting of children has slightly increased from 17.1 % between 1998-2002 to 17.3 % between 2016 – 2020.
• As per GHI 2021 report, the Stunting of children percentage is lower and it is better than 54.2 % between 1998-2002 to 34.7% between 2016-2020.
• As per GHI 2021 report, the Mortality rate has also decreased and it is better than 9.2% In 2000 to 3.4% in 2019.
• Due to COVID-19 Pandemic restrictions in INDIA, People have been severely affected and it causing to Slight increase in Child Wasting.

Improvement :

India showed an improvement in mortality under age-5 and it is an all-time lower at 3.4%. It also showed improvement in the Proportion of undernourishment in the population and the prevalence of stunting children under age 5.

Government Repones :

• Ministry of Women and Child welfare development said that it is shocking to find that the GHI report 2021 is found to be lacking and Miles away from the ground reality and facts. It Suffers from serious methodological issues.
• The ministry also said that the GHI report publishing agencies have not done their due effort before releasing the report.

 

Concern Worldwide:  Concern Worldwide Works with the world’s poorest people to transform their lives. It is an international humanitarian organization dedicated to tackling poverty and suffering in the world’s poorest countries.

Welthungerhilfe:  Welthungerhilfe is one of the largest private aid organizations in Germany, Independent of politics and religion. It was established in 1962, as the German section of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign.

References: https://www.globalhungerindex.org/

 

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