The combination of multiple overlapping crises are impeding global efforts to tackle hunger, according to the 2023 Global Hunger Index (GHI) published on Thursday, which shows hunger levels are at “serious” or “alarming” levels in 43 countries.
The fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, climate disasters around the world and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have combined to stall progress in the fight against hunger.
“Today’s report spells out the scale of the impact which multiple crises are having on some of the world’s poorest people,” said David Regan, chief executive of Concern Worldwide, which is one of the report’s co-authors.
The GHI, now in its 18th year, scores countries using a 100-point severity-of-hunger scale based on undernourishment levels, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality – the share of children who die before their fifth birthday, partly reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.
Central African Republic (CAR) has the highest score of any country in this year’s report. Its 2020–2022 undernourishment rate of 48.7 per cent means nearly half of the population is consistently unable to meet minimum dietary energy needs.
One in 10 of the country’s children does not live until their fifth birthday. Forty per cent of children are stunted, and 5.3 per cent are wasted. CAR has suffered from conflict in recent years, which along with population displacement, widespread poverty and underemployment, drives hunger there. It is one of nine countries in this year’s report experiencing “alarming” levels of hunger. The others are Somalia, Burundi, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Niger and Yemen.
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Notable progress in recent years has “largely stalled”, with 14 countries with moderate, serious or alarming hunger scores showing improvements of less than 5 per cent this year compared with 2015. For 18 countries, hunger scores increased since 2015.
However, despite the global challenges some countries continue to make progress in reducing hunger since 2015, including Bangladesh, Chad, Djibouti, Lao PDR, Mozambique, Nepal and Timor-Leste.
The 2023 report also focuses on the future food needs of the world’s young population – the majority of whom live in low- and middle-income countries in south Asia, East Asia and Africa. Forty-two per cent of the world’s population is aged under 25.
“They are emerging into adulthood in a context of inherently unequal and unsustainable food systems that fail to deliver food and nutrition security and are highly vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation,” according to young academics Wendy Gexa and Mendy Ndlovu from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
In their essay commissioned for the report, they warn young people are inheriting food systems that are failing on multiple fronts. Food systems are the network of activities required to produce food and get it to consumers. It includes production, processing, transport and consumption.
“The 2023 GHI highlights the reality that youth are suffering disproportionately from the devastating failure of current food systems. Fundamental change must happen,” Mr Regan added. “Governments must enable young people everywhere bring their energy and innovation to define the future food and agriculture systems, improving nutrition while strengthening the resilience of the local food systems under most ecological and climate stress.”
Concern Worldwide and GHI co-authors Welthungerhilfe, the German non-government organisation, have called for increased representation of young people in policy and decision-making when it comes to food systems. Governments must improve young people’s access to productive resources, reform land and property rights to enable them to profitably and sustainably engage in farming, they added.
“Governments need to break down the barriers to their full participation in food systems and invest in training and education,” Mr Regan said. “Agriculture and food systems must be promoted as viable and attractive livelihoods. Meaningful engagement of young people can unlock their potential as innovative agents of change and harness their energy and dynamism to transform food systems.”
The 2023 GHI report is available at: www.concern.net
