Global Hunger Index Report
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a mechanism that measures and monitors hunger globally, by region, and country-wise. The GHI is deliberate annually, and its aftermath appears in a report published in October each year. The GHI was established in 2006 and initially issued by US based IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute) and Germany based Welthungerhilfe. In addition to this, the Irish NGO Concern Worldwide was become a co-publisher in 2007. In 2018, IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute)stepped apart from its participation in the project and the GHI became a joint project of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
The 2020 GHI report presents a multidimensional steps of global, regional, and national hunger by assigning a quantitative score based on numerous facets of hunger. It then ranks countries by
Global Hunger Index (GHI) score and compares recent scores with past results. After decreasing since 2000, hunger level globally lies on the cusp between serious and moderate, as per GHI - 2020 report. Many countries have also achieved hunger level reductions since 2000, but in some countries, hunger level still continues or even worsened.
Determination or Calculation of the Global Hunger Index (GHI)
The Index ranks nations or countries on a hundred-point scale, with zero being the top or best score which refers to no hunger and hundred being the worst score, even though none of these extremes is reached in practice. The extremity or severity of hunger associated with the range of possible Global Hunger Index (GHI) scores is as follows:
The GHI includes 4 constituent indicators:
- the proportion of the undernourished as a percentage of the population;
- the proportion of children under the age of five suffering from wasting, a sign of acute undernutrition;
- the proportion of children under the age of five suffering from stunting, a sign of chronic undernutrition; and
- the mortality rate of children under the age of five.
The projections and data used for the 2020 GHI are for the period from 2014 to 2019—the most up to date available data for the four components of the Global Hunger Index (GHI). The details on the proportion of undernourished come from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and involves authors' approximation. Details on stunting and child wasting are collected from United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank (WB), MEASURE DHS, the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development, and also include the authors’ own approximation. Details on child mortality are from the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Besides presenting Global Hunger Index (GHI) scores, every year GHI report involves an essay addressing one particular detail of hunger. The 2019 report reflects the issue of hunger and climate change
In past years, topics included:
| 2010 |
Early childhood undernutrition among children younger than the age of two. |
| 2011 |
Rising food prices of the recent years and the effects these changes have on hunger and malnutrition.
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| 2012 |
Attaining food security and sustainable use of natural resources, when the natural sources of food become increasingly scarce.
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| 2013 |
Strengthening community resilience against malnutrition and undernutrition.
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| 2014 |
Hidden hunger, a form of undernutrition categorized by micronutrient deficiencies.
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| 2015 |
Armed debate and its relation to hunger
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| 2016 |
Reaching the United Nation Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030. |
| 2017 |
The challenges of inequality and hunger. |
| 2018 |
Forced migration and hunger |
| 2019 |
The challenge of climate change and hunger
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In addition to the yearly GHI, the Hunger Index for the States of India (ISHI) was published in 2008 and the Sub-National Hunger Index for Ethiopia was published in 2009.
Global Hunger Index 2020 Report:
India ranked 94 out of 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2020 that is placed at lower to its South Asian neighbours such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri lanka, but the statistics for Bhutan is not shown. While, in 2019 India’s rank in GHI report was 102 out of 117 countries.
India Specific Findings in GHI 2020
- India ranked lower than most of its Pakistan (88), Bangladesh (75), Nepal (73) and Sri Lanka (64) among other South Asian countries.
- The reports showed that the India falls under serious hunger Category because of following issues like - Lack of effective Tracking, poor implementation processes and bad approach in handling poor and malnutrition performance by big states behind the less ranking. Also, the Climate change became challenged for us.
- As per the report, the child wasting rate is the highest (17.3%) in the world while the child stunting rate is (37.4%) in India.
- India scores 27.2 on the list and signs that the level of hunger is serious in the country.
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GHI highlights that the country has improved in some indicators such as under-5 mortality rates (3.7% improvement) and occurrence of undernourishment looking at inadequate food.
- Some countries that are facing alarming situation are – Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar and Mozambique.
- However, there are thirteen countries that fall under a worse situation. These countries are – Mozambique (103), Chad(107), Afghanistan (99), Libya (102), Nigeria (98) and Rwanda (97).
- In accordance with the GHI report, about 14% Population of India is Undernourished.
