In over 50 developing countries, 800 million people still going hungry
October 13, 2015
The latest Global Hunger Index report for 2015 has identified 52 developing countries that are suffering from serious or alarming levels of hunger, with nearly 800 million people without access to food.
The report points out that while “levels of hunger in the developing world have declined by more than one-quarter since 2000. Despite the progress made, the level of hunger in the world remains unacceptably high, with 795 million people still going hungry, more than one in four children affected by stunting, and 9 percent of children affected by wasting.”
According to the report the worst affected is the Central African Republic followed by Chad and Zambia.
"Armed conflict and hunger are strongly associated. The countries with the highest GHI scores tend to be those engaged in or recently emerged from war," the report said.
"It is perhaps not surprising that the first two of these three countries have been plagued with high hunger levels, given the violent conflict and instability their people face."
East Timor, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Niger and Yemen made it to the list of 10 countries most affected by hunger in 2015, while Pakistan barely missed that list by 0.3 points.
The Global Hunger Index, is calculated every year by the International Food Policy Research Institute, a Washington-DC based agricultural research center. It states that the “”Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger globally, regionally, and by country.”
The GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of regional and country differences in the struggle against hunger. It hopes that by calling attention to the issue, it will trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.
The following table shows the bottom-eleven countries on this years GHI, with number 104 being the worst affected.
