Progress in combating hunger and undernutrition has been lagging for decades. Best practices to fight hunger and undernutrition have been available for a long while, but lack of political will among leaders and a lack of political power among the poor have hampered their implementation. Since indices have proven to be powerful tools for advocacy and are able to capture multifaceted phenomena, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) was developed to increase attention to the hunger problem and mobilize the political will to speed up urgently needed progress in the fight against hunger. The GHI captures three dimensions of hunger: insufficient availability of food, shortfalls in the nutritional status of children, and child mortality, which is to a large extent attributable to undernutrition. -- from Author's Abstract ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; Theme 7; Subtheme 7.2; GRP24; Enhanced food and diet quality ; FCND
"This paper uses data from national household expenditure surveys to explore whether food insecurity is more severe in South Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa. It employs two indicators of the diet quantity dimension of food insecurity, or the inability to access sufficient food: the prevalence of food energy deficiency and the prevalence of severe food energy deficiency. It also employs two indicators of the diet quality dimension, indicating lack of access to nutritious food: the prevalence of low diet diversity and the percent of energy from staple foods. It finds the regions' food energy deficiency prevalences to be quite close (51 percent in South Asia, 57 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa). However, the prevalence of severe food energy deficiency, which is more life threatening, is higher in Sub-Saharan Africa (51 percent versus 35 percent in South Asia). From a diet quality standpoint, the regions appear to suffer from a comparable and high reliance on staple foods in the diet to the neglect of foods rich in protein and micronutrients, but that Sub-Saharan Africa may be doing worse, as reflected in less diverse diets. The results confirm that both regions suffer from deep food insecurity problems but point to Sub-Saharan Africa as the region with the more severe problem, particularly when it comes to the diet quantity dimension of food insecurity. In deciding which region should be given greater emphasis in the international allocation of scarce development resources, the fact that the numbers of people affected by food insecurity are higher in South Asia should be taken into consideration." -- from Authors' Abstract ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; Theme 7; Subtheme 7.2; GRP24; Enhanced food and diet quality ; FCND
In einer Welt, die immer schneller zusammenwächst, sind Hunger, Unterernährung und extreme Armut nach wie vor bittere Realität. Die Ärmsten der Armen verfügen über keine ausreichend einflussreiche Stimme, um ihre elementaren Anliegen zu Gehör zu bringen. Bei der Hungerbekämpfung müssen deshalb Wissen, Förderung von politischem Willen und Aktion zusammenkommen. Die Kooperation zwischen der Deutschen Welthunger-hilfe und dem International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) leistet dazu einen Beitrag. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI2; Theme 7; Subtheme 7.2; GRP24; Enhanced food and diet quality ; FCND; COM
It's a bitter reality that in a world that is growing closer all the time, hunger, undernutrition, and abject poverty are still rife. The poorest of the poor lack a sufficiently influential voice to make their fundamental concerns be heard. It's therefore essential that knowledge, political will, and action be brought together in the fight against hunger. The collaboration between Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) contributes to this endeavour. While there has been progress in the fight against hunger in a number of regions in the world, pledges made to eradicate hunger are being repeatedly broken. The target of halving the proportion of hungry people in the world as agreed by 189 heads of state in the 2000 Millennium Goals will not be met: it's estimated that if trends continue at the current pace, there will still be around 610 million people suffering from hunger by the year 2015 – that is, 32 million more than set as a target by the heads of state. The considerably more ambitious goal set at the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome – to reduce the number of hungry to 412 million people – can be seen as more desirable but the world is not on track to achieve it. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI2; Theme 7; Subtheme 7.2; GRP24; Enhanced food and diet quality ; FCND
Because hunger has many faces, it makes sense to choose a multidimensional approach for calculating the Global Hunger Index (GHI). Such an approach has the following advantages: 1. It simultaneously captures various aspects of hunger and undernutrition. 2. The combination of indicators measured independently of each other reduces the impact of random measurement errors. 3. The condensing of information facilitates a quicker overview for decision makers in the public and political arenas. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI2; Theme 7; Subtheme 7.2; GRP24; Enhanced food and diet quality ; FCND
From the 1990 GHI to the 2011 GHI, 15 countries were able to reduce their scores by 50 percent or more. Nineteen countries moved out of the bottom two categories – "extremely alarming" and "alarming." In terms of absolute progress, Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, and Vietnam saw the largest improvements between the 1990 GHI and the 2011 GHI. Twenty-six countries still have levels of hunger that are extremely alarming or alarming. The countries with extremely alarming 2011 GHI scores – Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eritrea – are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the countries with alarming GHI scores are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Among the six countries in which the hunger situation worsened, the Democratic Republic of Congo stands out. Its GHI score rose by about 63 percent owing to conflict and political instability. (Because of time lags in the availability of data, the 2011 GHI does not reflect the impacts of the 2010–11 food price crisis or the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa.) ; PR ; GRP24; IFPRI1 ; MTID; COM; DGO
L'Indice de la faim dans le monde 2013 (GHI), élaboré à partir de données couvrant la période 2008-2012, montre que le niveau de la faim dans le monde s'est amélioré depuis 1990, diminuant d'un tiers. En dépit des progrès réalisés, le niveau de la faim demeure « grave », avec 870 millions de personnes souffrant de la faim selon des estimations de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO). Les scores GHI varient considérablement en fonction des régions et des pays. L'Asie du Sud et l'Afrique subsaharienne concentrent les scores GHI les plus élevés. L'Asie du Sud a diminué son score GHI entre 1990 et 1995 de manière significative grâce, en particulier, à une baisse importante de l'insuffisance pondérale infantile, mais n'est pas parvenue à maintenir ce rythme de progression. Les inégalités sociales ainsi que le faible statut nutritionnel, éducationnel et social des femmes continuent de contribuer à une prévalence élevée de l'insuffisance pondérale chez les enfants de moins de cinq ans.L'Afrique subsaharienne n'a pas accompli autant de progrès que l'Asie du Sud au cours des années 1990. Toutefois, depuis le passage à l'an 2000, ce continent a réalisé des progrès notables et son score GHI est actuellement inférieur à celui de l'Asie du Sud. L'avènement d'une plus grande stabilité politique dans des pays anciennement touchés par des guerres civiles dans les années 1990 et 2000 s'est traduit par une reprise de la croissance économique. Des avancées dans la lutte contre le VIH/Sida, une diminution de la prévalence du paludisme et des taux de vaccination plus élevés ont contribué à réduire la mortalité infantile. Depuis 1990, 23 pays ont réalisé des progrès significatifs, réduisant leurs scores GHI de 50% voire plus. 27 pays sont passés de la catégorie « extrêmement alarmant » à « alarmant ». En termes de progrès absolus, les dix pays ayant connu les meilleures améliorations de leur score GHI sont l'Angola, le Bangladesh, le Cambodge, l'Ethiopie, le Ghana, le Malawi, le Niger, le Rwanda, la Thaïlande et le Vietnam. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI2 ; PHND; DGO; COM
