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It is not enough to look at food availability; we must consider the quality and diversity of foods available
We like lists; the top 100 books, songs, children’s names, hotels in the world. They help us assess, evaluate and inform our actions. There are lists for everything and they are everywhere. Magazine covers, books and television programmes are dedicated to them.
This year’s ‘hunger list’ may not be on the front cover of too many magazines, but it certainly should be news. At its most fundamental it tells us where the hungriest people in the world are living.
Based on the simple premise that to rid the world of the scourge of hunger we need to know where we are making progress and why, the ‘hunger list’ or Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2014, published today by Concern Worldwide, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Welthungerhilfe provides a simple tool which annually measures the state of hunger worldwide. Examining the data of 120 developing counties, the Index captures three interlinked dimensions of hunger: consumption of too few calories or nutrients, underweight of children, and child mortality. Countries are then ranked on a 100-point scale: Zero is the best score (no hunger), and 100 the worst.
So what is this year’s list telling us? The good news is that overall hunger in developing countries has fallen by 39 percent since 1990. The statistics are encouraging and demonstrate that we are slowly but surely winning the difficult battle against global hunger.
Angola, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chad, Ghana, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Thailand, and Vietnam have seen the greatest improvements in their scores.
A great example is Ghana: since 1990 it has reduced child hunger and mortality and slashed the proportion of under-nourished from 44 percent in 1990 to less than 5 percent in 2011.
Why is this? There are three big reasons: Ghana is politically stable, it’s invested heavily in agriculture and infrastructure and every child is guaranteed a daily hot nutritious meal made from locally produced foods.
But the report finds that levels of hunger are still classified as ‘alarming’ in 17 countries, most of these are in sub-Saharan Africa. Two countries, Burundi and Eritrea, are ranked as ‘extremely alarming’, with more than 60 percent of their populations undernourished.
However, although much has been accomplished and great strides have been made, the GHI makes the point that there is still much to do.
Across the world, there are still 840 million people who are chronically undernourished today, simply because they don’t get enough to eat.
A staggering two billion people across the globe get so few essential vitamins and minerals from the types of food they eat that they are consistently undernourished, suffering from what is known as ‘hidden hunger’.
Hidden hunger can take a tremendous toll on the human body. It weakens the immune system, stunts physical and intellectual growth and can ultimately lead to an early death. The effects are particularly devastating during the critical 1,000-day window of opportunity between the point of conception and a child’s second birthday.
It is not enough to look at food availability; we must consider the quality and diversity of foods available.
Effective ways to increase the diversity of food in people’s diet include the promotion of home gardening and changing behaviours around infant and young child feeding practices. Interventions to improve nutritional outcomes tend to focus on women, infants and young children. Evidence shows that interventions that target these populations achieve high rates of return in improving health, nutritional status and cognition later in life.
The economic costs of all forms of micronutrient deficiency can be significant, costing up to $2.1 trillion per year according to the World Bank. Research from the Copenhagen Consensus Expert Panel shows that returns on investment in nutrition are high. In 2008, it ranked supplements for children, including Vitamin A and Iron, among the top five best investments for economic development.
So we know it makes sense. The question is, what do we do about it?
Governments must demonstrate political commitment by making fighting hunger a priority. We need to invest in and develop human and financial resources.
Governments must also create a regulatory environment that values good nutrition: we need to create incentives for private sector companies to develop more nutritious foods. Transparent accountability systems are needed in order to ensure that investments contribute to public health.
Ireland is an international champion in bringing nutrition into the global development agenda, supporting innovative initiatives to ensure that children and their mothers are better nourished. This investment in the 1,000 days period breaks the cycle of poverty and hunger in families, communities and countries.
IFPRI, along withConcern Worldwide and others, is a partner in the Scaling Up Nutrition movement, a global push for action and investment to improve maternal and child nutrition.
We’re in the last 12 months of the Millennium Development Goals. We said we would halve the number of undernourished people. Despite great progress made, 840 million people continue to go hungry. This suffering – part of everyday life for many – cannot be allowed to continue.
The international community must work much harder to eliminate hunger in our lifetime.
Dominic MacSorley is CEO Concern Worldwide
The Global Hunger Index is a tool developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to comprehensively measure and track global hunger. The report is published by Concern, IFPRI and Welthungerhilfe. The full report is available here: www.concern.net/GHI2014
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