2020 Global Hunger Index: One Decade to Zero Hunger, Linking Health and Sustainable Food Systems

Globally, nearly 690 million people are undernourished, 144 million children are stunted and 47 million children suffer from wasting. In 2018, 5.3 million children died before their fifth birthdays – in many cases, as a result of undernutrition.

The worldwide GHI value in 2020 was 18.2. The highest value was recorded in Africa South of the Sahara (27.8), followed by South Asia (26), West Asia and North Africa (12), East and Southeast Asia (9.2), Latin America and the Caribbean (8.4) and Europe and Central Asia (5.8).

India ranked 94 – with a GHI value of 27.2 – in the 2020 Global Hunger Index, of a total of 107 countries. Countries with the highest GHI values included Madagascar (36), Timor-Leste (37.6) and Chad (44.7). Countries with the lowest GHI values – of less than 5 – included Belarus, Brazil and Chile.

India had a GHI value of 38.9 in 2000, 37.5 in 2006, 29.3 in 2012 and 27.2 in 2020.

Sri Lanka (16.3) ranked 64 in the 2020 GHI list, Nepal (19.5) ranked 73, Bangladesh (20.4) ranked 75 and Pakistan (24.6) ranked 88.

The report notes that the world is not on track to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’, the second goal of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the current pace, approximately 37 countries are unlikely to reach what the GHI categorises as ‘low’ hunger (a GHI value of below 9.9) by 2030.

The report categorises the hunger level in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as ‘alarming’ (between 35 and 49.9 on the GHI scale). Nearly 72 percent of the country’s population is living in poverty. In the last few years, multiple public health crises – including outbreaks of Ebola, measles, cholera, and now the global Covid-19 pandemic – have further undermined people’s health, food and nutrition security, and economic well-being.

Nepal’s GHI score has improved in the past two decades, the report states. The country’s 2020 score is 19.5, considered ‘moderate’ according to the GHI scale. The current value reflects reduced undernourishment, a declining rate of child stunting, a slight improvement in child wasting, and a substantial decline in child mortality.

Within countries, there exist wide disparities in different indicators of hunger depending on an individual’s wealth, location, ethnicity, and gender.

The Covid-19 pandemic – the report states – has revealed the degree to which social protection is lacking for the most vulnerable populations. Programmes for the well-being of the poor, children, the elderly and others, through cash and food transfers, subsidies and social insurance, are crucial for people’s food security during crises. Even before the pandemic, 55 per cent of the world’s population was not covered by any social protection programme.

Apart from ensuring the right to adequate and nutritious food for all and ending hunger, it is also crucial to reshape our food systems to become fair, healthy, resilient, and environmentally friendly.

Focus and Factoids by Nalinaksha Singh.

PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.