THE 2022 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 

Did you know that Nigeria has been ranked 103 out of 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI), a position that signifies the nation “has a level of hunger that is serious” and that some 828 million people were affected by hunger globally in 2021?

The Global Hunger Index, jointly published by the German-based Welthungerhilfe and Dublin-based Concern Worldwide on Friday, ranks countries by “severity”. The index has five levels of hunger under which each country falls – low, moderate, serious, alarming, and extremely alarming.

The GHI is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels. Its scores are based on the values of four component indicators: undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting, and child mortality. 

Undernourishment measures the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake while child stunting analyses the share of children under five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition.

Child wasting signifies the share of children under five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition; child mortality on the other hand indicates the share of children who die before their fifth birthday, partly reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.

Based on the values of the four indicators, a GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming.

According to the report, 17 countries including China, Hungary, Montenegro, Uzbekistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia shared the top rank with a GHI score of less than 5. However, no country has been placed in the extremely alarming category this year (2022).

According to the report, some 828 million people were affected by hunger globally in 2021, an increase of about 46 million people since 2020 and 150 million people since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The index indicates that the highest levels of hunger were in “Africa South of the Sahara” and South Asia – with progress against hunger in these regions having stagnated in recent years.

The 2022 report indicates that 12.7 per cent of Nigeria’s population is undernourished, 6.5 per cent of under-five children in the country are wasted, 31.5 per cent of children under five are stunted, while 11.4 per cent of children in Nigeria die before their fifth birthday. The index gave Nigeria a score of 27.3 – a hunger level falling under the “serious” category.

This is the second consecutive year in which Nigeria’s ranking on the scale remains the same. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, ranked 103 out of 116 countries in 2021 and 98 among 107 countries in 2020.

Created in 2006, the GHI was initially published by the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Germany-based Welthungerhilfe. In 2007, the Irish NGO Concern Worldwide also became a co-publisher. In 2018, IFPRI stepped aside from its involvement in the project and the GHI became a joint project of Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.

Source: PremiumTimes and Wikipedia