Global Hunger Index: Political action is the key

Progress and setbacks

The 2020 Global Hunger Index shows that although global hunger has gradually declined since 2000, in many places progress has been too slow to achieve “Zero Hunger by 2030.” Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, progress in many places stagnated or the positive trend of the past two decades had even reversed. The hunger situation remains severe in more than 50 countries. These countries are particularly vulnerable to worsening food insecurity due to current overlapping health, economic, and environmental crises.

The situation is particularly worrying in Africa South of the Sahara and South Asia. In both regions, even before Covid-19, one in three children was stunted (low weight for their height), a sign of chronic undernutrition. Sub-Saharan Africa is the world region with the highest proportion of undernourished people, at 21.2 percent. Due to political and economic crises, armed conflicts and extreme weather events, this figure has even increased again in recent years. In South Asia, 255 million people are undernourished, which is more than one-third of all undernourished people worldwide. South Asia also has the highest proportion of children in the world who are wasted (low height for their age), an indicator for acute malnutrition. This is due in part to poor maternal nutritional status and inadequate sanitation.

But the Covid-19 pandemic also makes clear that no region of the world is immune to hunger. National data also masks significant inequalities within countries. However, it is crucial to understand which populations within a country face particularly significant challenges – often marginalized groups or rural communities – in order to tailor nutrition programs. While Latin America as a region shows relatively low values, in the northwestern region of Guatemala, for example, almost 70 percent of all children are stunted. The indigenous population living here is severely affected by poverty. There is often a disparity between urban and rural areas. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, nearly half of children are stunted in some provinces, and about 15 percent in the capital region.

Crises, conflicts, cilmate, corona: drivers of hunger

While each country faces individual challenges, conflict, poverty, inequality, and climate change are found to be widespread and strong drivers of hunger. Often, education, agriculture, health, and sanitation systems are inadequate and disadvantage rural communities, indigenous peoples, women, and other marginalized groups. Setbacks are often caused by extreme weather events and multiple social, economic and political crises.

The Corona pandemic has exposed many weaknesses in our food systems that can no longer be ignored. They are neither resilient to crisis nor fair. Our actions are having an increasingly negative impact on the planet, and our food systems are part of the problem. They account for about one-third of all net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture is responsible for 70 percent of freshwater consumption and, together with industrial livestock production, causes massive biodiversity loss and soil degradation. Many people lack secure access to land and the extension services and infrastructure needed for agriculture. More than half of the world's population lacks social protection in the event of a crisis.

Madagascar is one of the countries with the highest level of hunger in the Global Hunger Index. The situation has recently deteriorated significantly. People's access to basic services is limited by increasing poverty and political instability, and a dramatic drought is currently exacerbating food insecurity. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country currently facing the world's worst food crisis, an extremely high proportion of the population (72%) lives in poverty. Ongoing violence and a poor security situation contribute to continued instability and massive displacement, threatening both livelihoods and food security. Multiple health crises - including severe outbreaks of Ebola, measles, cholera and now the Covid-19 pandemic - threaten health, food security and economic prosperity. Access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities is extremely limited. In Nepal, gender inequality and challenges such as early motherhood, which specifically affect girls, increase food insecurity. The agro-ecological conditions of these countries also vary widely. In Kenya, more than 80 percent of the land is considered arid or semiarid land, and 95 percent of crops are rain-fed, leaving farmers highly vulnerable to the effects of drought.  In Haiti, deforestation and erosion are widespread and soil quality is poor, constraining the agricultural sector. Many countries where hunger is widespread are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In March 2019, Cyclone Idai unleashed catastrophic flooding in Malawi, destroying crops and killing livestock. An El Niño-induced drought worsened the food security situation in much of East Africa in 2016–2017, including in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda. Last year, the locust plague aggravated the situation. These episodes create extraordinary hardships for many households, heightening their food insecurity and undernutrition in the absence of safety nets and humanitarian assistance.

Attaining Zero Hunger

Progress is possible. Socioeconomic and political conditions play a critical role. Countries where conflicts have ended, such as Sierra Leone, have seen a particularly sharp decline in hunger, but hunger levels remain serious. In Nepal, the decline in poverty has been shown to correlate with declining hunger rates — however strong subnational inequalities persist —, and in Cameroon, a significant increase in GDP per capita has contributed to successes. The political will to improve the food system is central. In a multi-sectoral approach led by the National Planning Commission, the government in Ghana has targeted interventions in health, education and agriculture to address malnutrition. However, almost all African Union member countries are failing to meet the targets for increasing investment and productivity in the agricultural sector to which they committed in the 2014 Malabo Declaration.

Evidence also shows that nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions contribute to progress in hunger reduction. The relevance of investments in mother-child health, for example, has been proven, as nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, i.e. from conception to the 2nd birthday, lays the foundation for lifelong health. A mother-child health and nutrition project in Haiti provided preventive health care, food assistance and nutrition education to pregnant and breastfeeding women and their children. Stunting, wasting as well as underweight were less prevalent among the children than in a control group – especially when the children received preventive treatment. Moreover, infant feeding counselling programmes in Ethiopia and Uganda improved breastfeeding behaviour. The decline in stunting and child mortality rates from 2000-2014 in Malawi can be attributed to stringent policies and programmes that prioritise child health and nutrition. An analysis of child mortality in Niger 1998-2009 found that facilitated access to primary health care for women and children, comprehensive information campaigns focusing on immunisation and bed nets, and nutrition counselling were the main factors that led to improvements.

There is also evidence of the positive impact of agricultural investments on food security and quality, for example through extension services and trainings for smallholder farmers. Examples are the promotion of home gardening and nutrition education in subsistence farming in Bangladesh, leading to stakeholders growing and consuming more micronutrient-rich food such as fruits and vegetables. Increased crop yields and thus reduced food deficits were achieved in Niger and Burkina Faso through (re)planting for reduced wind erosion and optimised water retention to improve soil quality. In Ethiopia, a project providing livestock feed, vaccination and deworming to pastoral communities increased milk production and consumption among children and stabilised their age-related weight. In the social sector, cash transfers are effective and widespread measures. Because poverty is closely linked to hunger, cash transfers are used to enable vulnerable households to buy food that is appropriate to their eating habits and culture. Evaluations in Burkina Faso, Kenya and Malawi confirmed positive impacts on food security, quality and/or diversity.

Guaranteeing the right to food for all requires an integrated approach to health, agriculture and nutrition, such as successfully done in Ghana through multi-sectoral cooperation. However, while tailor-made interventions are required given different socioeconomic and environmental conditions, successful strategies are known. The key to success is decisive political action and consistent implementation of existing commitments, such as the Malabo Declaration or relevant guidelines, such as on the human right to food or responsible land tenure. Policy-making processes must be participatory and involve the local population. On an international level, existing human rights-based multilateral mechanisms, such as the Committee on World Food Security, need to be strengthened. Political will is needed, as well as the willingness of countries like Germany to live up to their responsibility. Our food systems must become fair, healthy and sustainable in order to overcome current crises, prevent them in the future, and ultimately end hunger by 2030.

About the Global Hunger Index

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) measures and compares the prevalence of hunger and undernutrition on a global, regional, and national level on an annual basis. It aims to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger and calls attention to those regions of the world where additional efforts are most urgently needed to end hunger.

Hunger is complex and has many dimensions. Therefore, the index is composed of four indicators and thus takes into account the quality and utilisation of food beyond the mere availability of calories. These indicators are part of a set of indicators used to measure progress towards the sustainable development goals. Further information on the results, the calculation of the index and the situation in individual countries, as well as the full report for download can be found at: www.globalhungerindex.org