Of the countries for which data are available, one country – the Central African Republic – suffers from a level of hunger that is ‘extremely alarming’ (the highest level on the GHI scale), while four countries – Chad, Madagascar, Yemen, and Zambia – suffer from levels of hunger that are ‘alarming’. Of the 117 countries ranked as part of the index, 43 have ‘serious’ levels of hunger.
Nine countries in the ‘moderate’, ‘serious’, ‘alarming’, or ‘extremely alarming’ categories have higher scores today than in 2010 -- the Central African Republic (CAR), Madagascar, Venezuela, Yemen, Jordan, Malaysia, Mauritania, Lebanon and Oman.
On a global level, the prevalence of undernourishment — the percentage of the population without regular access to adequate calories — has stagnated since 2015, and the absolute number of people who are undernourished has actually risen from 785 million in 2015 to 822 million in 2018. The rise was greatest in countries in Africa South of the Sahara affected by conflict and drought.
The 14th annual report in the GHI series, published today by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and its German NGO partner Welthungerhilfe, notes that scores could not be calculated for several countries due to inadequate data. In nine of these countries – Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Libya, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria – hunger and undernutrition are causes of significant concern.
“Progress made towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030 is now under threat or is being reversed,” Concern Worldwide CEO Dominic MacSorley said. “This report shows that multiple countries have higher hunger levels now than in 2010, and approximately 45 countries are set to fail to achieve low levels of hunger by 2030,” he said. “Conflict, inequality, and the effects of climate change have all contributed to persistently high levels of hunger and food insecurity around the world.”