GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 2015

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger globally and by country and region. Calculated each year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the GHI highlights successes and failures in hunger reduction and provides insights into the drivers of hunger. By raising awareness and understanding of regional and country differences in hunger, the GHI aims to trigger actions to reduce hunger.

To reflect the multidimensional nature of hunger, the GHI combines the following four component indicators into one index:

Undernourishment: the proportion of undernourished people as a percentage of the population (reflecting the share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient;

Child wasting: the proportion of children under the age of five who suffer from wasting (that is, low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition);

Child stunting: the proportion of children under the age of five who suffer from stunting (that is, low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); and

Child mortality: the mortality rate of children under the age of five (partially reflecting the fatal synergy of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments).

This year, GHI scores were calculated using a new and improved formula. The revision replaces child underweight, previously the only indicator of child undernutrition, with two indicators of child undernutrition—child wasting and child stunting.

The GHI ranks countries on a 100-point scale. Zero is the best score (no hunger), and 100 is the worst, although neither of these extremes is reached in practice.

GHI Awards

The Global Hunger Index has received many awards. In 2015, it received a gold Fox Finance Award. The jury praised the 2014 report for both its content and design.

• Fox Finance Award: Gold Award for Global Hunger Index 2014
• BCP Best of Corporate Publishing 2013: Gold Award for Global Hunger Index 2012
• BCP Best of Corporate Publishing 2012: Silver Award for Global Hunger Index 2011
• 2013 ARC Award Gold: The International Competition Honoring Excellence in Annual Reports in Humanitarian Aid Category
• Mercury Excellence Awards 2011/2012: Grand Winner - Best Annual Reports - Europe
• Mercury Excellence Awards 2011/2012: Gold Winner - Annual Reports - Overall Presentation - Non-Profit - Human Welfare
• Mercury Excellence Awards 2010/2011: Grand Winner - Best Annual Reports - Europe
• Mercury Excellence Awards 2009/2010: Silver Winner - Annual Reports - Overall Presentation - Non-Profit - Human Welfare
• League of American Communication Professionals: 2010 Vision Awards: Annual Reports Competition: Platinum Award
• League of American Communication Professionals: 2010/2011 Vision Awards: Top100 Annual Reports Worldwide: 42th place

INDIA GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX-2015

India has significantly moved the dial on hunger in the past decade but still has serious rates of people suffering from a lack of food, according to a global ranking published this week.

The world’s second-most-populous-country came 80th out of 104 countries ranked from the least to the most hungry, ahead of Pakistan, Ethiopia and Nigeria but behind Bangladesh, North Korea and Myanmar.

The ranking measures the proportion of the population that consumesfewer than 1,800 kilocalories each a day–defined as undernourishment–as well as three indicators relating to childhood nutrition and life expectancy.

India improved its global hunger index score to 29 in 2015 from 38.5 in 2005. A lower number means fewer people are going hungry.

The report’s authors said the reduction was a result of “recent successes in the fight against child undernutrition in India.”

Wasting –when weight is less than expected for a child’s height—in children in the country fell from 20% in 2005 to 15% in 2014, and stunting–when a child is shorter than expected for their age–fell from 48% to 39%  in the same period, the report said.

“The government of India has scaled up nutrition-specific interventions over the past decade, including a final drive to expand the Integrated Child Development Services program that aims to improve the health, nutrition, and development of children.”

Not everyone in India has benefited though, the report said, adding that progress had been uneven across the country’s 29 states.

“While the reasons for the improvements—or lack thereof—are not entirely clear, one factor that seems to correlate with undernutrition in India is open defecation, which contributes to illnesses that prevent the absorption of nutrients,” the authors said. More than half of India’s population lacks access to a proper toilet.

And 15% of the country’s 1.2 billion people, which amounts to 180 million people, still don’t get enough calories each day, according to the report.

Overall, the report says, levels of hunger in the developing world have declined by more than a quarter since 2000. But, it added, “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% of children affected by wasting.”