The number of people experiencing hunger around the world remains far higher than pre-pandemic levels, but is still “significantly better” than 20 years ago, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank says.
“This year’s [Global Hunger Index report] reveals that 58 countries will not reach low levels of hunger, let alone zero hunger by 2030, which is a sobering thought,” said Stefan Epp-Koop, the Foodgrains Bank’s senior manager of humanitarian programs, in a news release today.
The Global Hunger Index is a tool that measures and tracks hunger at global, regional and national levels, “reflecting multiple dimensions of hunger over time,” the index’s website says.
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This year’s index, released this fall, showed that progress on reducing hunger around the world has stalled, despite significant headway in some countries.
“The impacts of multiple intersecting crises have stalled progress in the fight against hunger,” Epp said. “Conflict, extreme weather, and economic challenges such as high inflation, have hit communities already vulnerable to food insecurity in a devastating way this year.”
Since 2017, undernourishment, one of the indicators used to calculate the Global Hunger Index, has risen. The number of undernourished people this year was about 735 million, from 572 million in 2017, the index report said.
South Asia and Africa south of the Sahara are the regions with the highest levels of hunger. Nine countries have “alarming” levels of hunger, the index report said–these are Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
A further 34 countries measured “serious” hunger, the report said.
There’s still good news, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank said.
Since 2000, the number of countries with measured ‘alarming’ hunger has dropped to nine from 38, the Foodgrains Bank said.
With a concerted, compassionate effort by individuals, organizations and governments, that number can continue to decline significantly in 2024, the organization added.
“It’s encouraging to see that almost every country our members and their partners are working in has improved during this period. There is still a long way to go to ending hunger, but knowing progress has taken place as a result of the work we’re doing motivates us to keep going,” said Foodgrains Bank executive director Andy Harrington.
