Global Hunger Index confirms Ghana on track to eliminating hunger
BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) report for 2010 released today has confirmed that Ghana is on track to meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing by half the percentage of its population who are hungry, by 2015.
“Only one country in Sub-Saharan Africa – Ghana – is among the 10 best performers in improving their GHI score since 1990,” says the report, which is titled “The Challenge of Hunger: Focus on The Crisis of Child Undernutrition”.
According to the 2010 GHI prepared jointly by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, Ghana was the seventh among 10 countries worldwide considered as winners in their ability to downsize the number of hungry people from the period 1990 to 2010.
It states that Ghana was able to reduce its hungry by 57%, whilst Kuwait topped the group with 73% and Peru at the bottom with 54%.
The rest on the table were, Malaysia – 63%, Turkey and Mexico – 62%, Tunisia and Nicaragua – 58% each, Iran, Islamic Republic – 56% and Saudi Arabia – 55%.
Conversely, countries that performed very poorly in their bid to reduce hunger and thus tagged as losers, were led by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which had 66% more of its people going hungry within the ten year period.
Alarmingly, with the exception of North Korea which also experienced a reduction of people who were adequately fed from 1990 to 2010 by a percentage of 20, all the countries that experienced a deterioration of its ability to feed its citizens were from Africa.
These, according to the latest released global statistics, were, the Comoros – 21%, Burundi – 20%, Swaziland 14%, Zimbabwe – 12%, Guinea Bissau – 8%, Liberia and The Gambia – 6% each.
Explaining the trend in both winner and loser countries, the report says from the 1990 GHI to the 2010 GHI, not many countries were able to reduce their scores by 50 percent or more.
It adds that “About one-third of the countries made modest progress, reducing their GHI scores by between 25 and 49.9 percent, and another third decreased their GHI scores by between 0 and 24.9 percent.”
Outlining the reasons for the performance by the 19 countries on both sides of the divide, the Global Hunger Index report says “Kuwait’s seemingly remarkable progress in reducing hunger is mainly due to its unusually high level in 1990, when Iraq invaded the country.”
It maintains though, that the second-best performer, Malaysia, reduced hunger through a dramatic reduction in the prevalence of child underweight.
Among the nine countries in which the GHI rose (all in Sub-Saharan Africa, except for North Korea), the Democratic Republic of Congo is a clear outlier, with the GHI increasing by more than 65 percent, the report affirms.
Whereas it blames the poor performance of DR Congo, Burundi, Comoros, Guinea Bissau and Liberia on the GHI, on conflict and instability in those countries, it holds HIV and AIDS, as well as high inequality, responsible for the low performance of Swaziland.
“Conflict and political instability have increased hunger in that country, as well as in Burundi, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, and Liberia. In Swaziland, the high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, coupled with high inequality, has severely undermined food security despite higher national incomes,” it says.
The 2010 GHI report also notes that negative trends in economic growth and food production in North Korea have increased rates of undernourishment in that country, whilst in the Gambia, undernourishment deteriorated in part due to lower social protection spending for vulnerable households.
Touching on Zimbabwe, it says once regarded as the breadbasket of Africa, the economic collapse has increased the proportion of underweight children and child mortality in the Eastern Africa country.
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| A Typical Food Market in Ghana |
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) report for 2010 released today has confirmed that Ghana is on track to meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing by half the percentage of its population who are hungry, by 2015.
“Only one country in Sub-Saharan Africa – Ghana – is among the 10 best performers in improving their GHI score since 1990,” says the report, which is titled “The Challenge of Hunger: Focus on The Crisis of Child Undernutrition”.
According to the 2010 GHI prepared jointly by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, Ghana was the seventh among 10 countries worldwide considered as winners in their ability to downsize the number of hungry people from the period 1990 to 2010.
It states that Ghana was able to reduce its hungry by 57%, whilst Kuwait topped the group with 73% and Peru at the bottom with 54%.
The rest on the table were, Malaysia – 63%, Turkey and Mexico – 62%, Tunisia and Nicaragua – 58% each, Iran, Islamic Republic – 56% and Saudi Arabia – 55%.
Conversely, countries that performed very poorly in their bid to reduce hunger and thus tagged as losers, were led by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which had 66% more of its people going hungry within the ten year period.
Alarmingly, with the exception of North Korea which also experienced a reduction of people who were adequately fed from 1990 to 2010 by a percentage of 20, all the countries that experienced a deterioration of its ability to feed its citizens were from Africa.
These, according to the latest released global statistics, were, the Comoros – 21%, Burundi – 20%, Swaziland 14%, Zimbabwe – 12%, Guinea Bissau – 8%, Liberia and The Gambia – 6% each.
Explaining the trend in both winner and loser countries, the report says from the 1990 GHI to the 2010 GHI, not many countries were able to reduce their scores by 50 percent or more.
It adds that “About one-third of the countries made modest progress, reducing their GHI scores by between 25 and 49.9 percent, and another third decreased their GHI scores by between 0 and 24.9 percent.”
Outlining the reasons for the performance by the 19 countries on both sides of the divide, the Global Hunger Index report says “Kuwait’s seemingly remarkable progress in reducing hunger is mainly due to its unusually high level in 1990, when Iraq invaded the country.”
It maintains though, that the second-best performer, Malaysia, reduced hunger through a dramatic reduction in the prevalence of child underweight.
Among the nine countries in which the GHI rose (all in Sub-Saharan Africa, except for North Korea), the Democratic Republic of Congo is a clear outlier, with the GHI increasing by more than 65 percent, the report affirms.
Whereas it blames the poor performance of DR Congo, Burundi, Comoros, Guinea Bissau and Liberia on the GHI, on conflict and instability in those countries, it holds HIV and AIDS, as well as high inequality, responsible for the low performance of Swaziland.
“Conflict and political instability have increased hunger in that country, as well as in Burundi, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, and Liberia. In Swaziland, the high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, coupled with high inequality, has severely undermined food security despite higher national incomes,” it says.
The 2010 GHI report also notes that negative trends in economic growth and food production in North Korea have increased rates of undernourishment in that country, whilst in the Gambia, undernourishment deteriorated in part due to lower social protection spending for vulnerable households.
Touching on Zimbabwe, it says once regarded as the breadbasket of Africa, the economic collapse has increased the proportion of underweight children and child mortality in the Eastern Africa country.
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