Economic crisis leaving millions hungry, says study
The 2009 Global Hunger Index released by International Food Policy Research Institute shows alarming levels of hunger and malnutrition across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The study finds that economic downturn has severely affected purchasing power in low-income countries resulting in under-nourishment and high child mortality rates.
Des Moines, Iowa: Twenty-nine countries around the world have alarming or extremely alarming levels of hunger, and thirteen countries have actually seen increases in their hunger levels since 1990, according to the 2009 Global Hunger Index report.
- Africa is also home to the highest proportion of undernourished people/ Photo credit: Oaktree Foundation
The Democratic Republic of Congo scored the worst, followed by Burundi, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Chad, and Ethiopia. New this year, the report also shows that high rates of hunger are strongly linked to gender inequalities, especially in terms of literacy and access to education, and highlights which countries are most vulnerable to the global economic downturn.
“Low-income countries are being hurt by the food and financial crises,” explained Klaus von Grebmer, lead author of the report and communications director at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
“The crises have significantly reduced purchasing power and income-earning opportunities for poor people, who spend up to 70% of their income on food, while food prices in many countries are still higher than several years ago.”
The Global Hunger Index is being released in advance of World Food Day (October 16) for the fourth year by IFPRI, Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide. The Index ranks countries on three leading indicators—prevalence of child malnutrition, rates of child mortality, and the proportion of people who are calorie deficient—and combines them into one score.
Data used in the Index come from 2007 and earlier years (the most recent available), and thus rankings only partially account for the impact of the food crisis, and do not reflect the effects of the financial crisis. However, the report does compare Index rankings with International Monetary Fund indicators of vulnerability to the crises.
Countries that suffer from alarming levels of hunger are also very vulnerable to the global recession—Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo being prime examples. The areas of vulnerability are trade, foreign direct investment, international aid, and remittances.
Overall, the 2009 Index illustrates that despite regional differences, progress in reducing hunger remains slow. Since 1990, the global score has declined by less than 25%. Most of this progress has been made in Southeast Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, which have lowered their Index scores by more than 40% over the past two decades.
Global Hunger Index scores, however, remain distressingly high throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa, which has made the least progress in combating hunger, with only a 13% decline in its score since 1990. Of the ten countries that have seen the largest increase in their Index scores, nine are in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) score has increased by an appalling 53%.
Africa is also home to the highest proportion of undernourished people (76 and 68% of the population, respectively, in the DRC and Eritrea) and the world’s highest child mortality rate, which stands at 26% in Sierra Leone.
Despite some progress over the past 20 years, the situation is also alarming in South Asia, which actually scored worse than Sub-Saharan Africa on the 2009 Global Hunger Index, largely because of widespread child malnutrition.
In Bangladesh and India, more than 40% of children are underweight. Sri Lanka, which has been committed to universal education and reproductive health care, has been successful at reducing hunger, and stands out as an important exception in the region. India is ranked a poor 65th in battling hunger, according to the Index.
“Women’s educational level and status or power relative to men’s in households and communities significantly affect children’s nutrition,” said Agnes Quisumbing, report co-author and IFPRI senior research fellow. “In South Asia, women’s low social status and limited access to schooling have dire consequences for the nutrition, health, and wellbeing of both mothers and their children.”
To better assess the links between hunger and gender inequality, IFPRI compared the 2009 Global Hunger Index rankings to the World Economic Forum’s 2008 Global Gender Gap Index, which measures the wellbeing of women relative to men.
Countries with the most severe hunger problems also had high levels of gender inequality. The situation is especially serious in Chad, which ranks fifth worst on the Global Hunger Index, second in terms of gender inequality, and has a shockingly low female literacy rate of 13%, compared to 41% for men. This negative trend, however, can be reversed. IFPRI research shows that equalising men’s and women’s status would reduce the number of malnourished children by 13.4 million in South Asia and by 1.7 million in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Knowing that hunger and gender inequality go hand-in-hand, an important step to ending world hunger is empowering women and eradicating gender disparities in education, health, economic participation, and political opportunities,” said Joachim von Braun, IFPRI director general.
“After decades of slow progress in the fight against hunger, child malnourishment is now on the rise due to recent economic developments. It is imperative that commitments made at the G20 and other global policy meetings are swiftly transformed into real action in cooperation with developing countries.”
