2020 Synopsis GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX ONE DECADE TO ZERO HUNGER LINKING HEALTH AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS October 2020 Although hunger worldwide has gradually declined since 2000, in many places progress is too slow and hunger remains severe. Furthermore, these places are highly vulnerable to a worsening of food and nutrition insecurity caused by the overlapping health, economic, and environmental crises of 2020. Hunger Remains High in More Than 50 Countries not available. It is crucial to strengthen data collection to gain a Alarming levels of hunger have been identified in 3 countries—Chad, clearer picture of food and nutrition security in every country, so that Timor-Leste, and Madagascar—based on GHI scores. Based on actions designed to eliminate hunger can be adapted appropriately other known data, alarming hunger has also been provisionally iden- to conditions on the ground. tified in another 8 countries—Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Hunger Is Moderate on a Global Scale but Varies Syria, and Yemen. Hunger is classified as serious in 31 countries Widely by Region based on GHI scores and provisionally classified as serious in Hunger worldwide, represented by a GHI score of 18.2, is at a mod- 9 countries. erate level, down from a 2000 GHI score of 28.2, classified as seri- In many countries the situation is improving too slowly, while in ous (Figure 1). Globally, far too many individuals are suffering from others it is worsening. For 46 countries in the moderate, serious, or hunger: nearly 690 million people are undernourished; 144 million alarming categories, GHI scores have improved since 2012, but for children suffer from stunting, a sign of chronic undernutrition; 14 countries in those categories, GHI scores show that hunger and 47 million children suffer from wasting, a sign of acute undernutri- undernutrition have worsened. The latest GHI projections show that tion; and in 2018, 5.3 million children died before their fifth birth- 37 countries will fail to achieve even low hunger by 2030. In some days, in many cases as a result of undernutrition. countries without crises at the national level, marginalized groups In both Africa South of the Sahara and South Asia, hunger is and selected regions nevertheless face tragically high levels of hun- classified as serious, owing partly to large shares of people who are ger and undernutrition. undernourished and high rates of child stunting. Moreover, Africa Some hunger designations are provisional because for a number South of the Sahara has the world’s highest child mortality rate, of countries, the data needed to definitively calculate GHI scores are while South Asia has the world’s highest child wasting rate. FIGURE 1 GLOBAL AND REGIONAL 2000, 2006, 2012, AND 2020 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX SCORES, WITH CONTRIBUTION OF COMPONENTS Under-five mortality rate 50 Prevalence of wasting in children 42.7 Prevalence of stunting in children 40 38.2 36.6 36.0 Proportion of undernourished 31.0 29.5 28.2 30 27.8 26.0 25.4 20.5 GHI score 18.5 20 18.2 17.0 15.5 15.0 13.5 13.3 13.1 12.0 11.0 10.4 9.2 9.2 8.3 8.4 10 7.5 5.8 0 '00 '06 '12 '20 '00 '06 '12 '20 '00 '06 '12 '20 '00 '06 '12 '20 '00 '06 '12 '20 '00 '06 '12 '20 '00 '06 '12 '20 World Africa South South Asia West Asia & East & Latin America Europe & of the Sahara North Africa Southeast Asia & Caribbean Central Asia Source: Authors. Note: See Appendix C in the full GHI report for data sources. The regional and global GHI scores are calculated using regional and global aggregates for each indicator and the formula described in Appendix B. The regional and global aggregates for each indicator are calculated as population-weighted averages, using the indicator values reported in Appendix D. For countries lacking undernourishment data, provisional estimates provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) were used in the calculation of aggregates only, but are not reported in Appendix D. Appendix F shows which countries are included in each region. 2 In contrast, hunger levels in Europe and Central Asia, Latin Experience Shows Dramatic Progress Is Possible America and the Caribbean, East and Southeast Asia, and West Asia Looking back at trends over the past 10 to 20 years, most countries and North Africa are characterized as low or moderate, although have experienced improvements, sometimes dramatic ones. In Angola, hunger is high among certain groups within countries in these regions. Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone, for example, hunger fell from extremely alarming in 2000—when civil wars and their aftermaths had con- Current Crises Are Worsening the Outlook for tributed to food and nutrition insecurity—to serious in the 2020 GHI. Hunger Over the same period Cameroon progressed from an alarming level The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn, as of hunger to a moderate level, as the country doubled its per capita well as a massive outbreak of desert locusts in the Horn of Africa GDP and boosted its human development indicators. The near-term and other crises, are exacerbating food and nutrition insecurity for future will test the world’s capacity to respond to multiple crises millions of people, as these crises come on top of existing hunger simultaneously—health crises, environmental crises, economic cri- caused by conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks. The GHI ses, and food security crises, among others. With persistence, col- scores presented in this report do not yet reflect the impact of the lective effort, and the dedication of sufficient resources, the world overlapping disasters of 2020, but they point to hot spots where food can overcome these crises. If done right, the response will build a insecurity and undernutrition are already severe, putting their pop- stronger foundation on which to move forward, leaving the world more ulations at greater risk of acute food crises and chronic hunger in resilient and better prepared for future challenges. the future. BOX 1 ABOUT THE GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively In 2020, data were assessed for the 132 countries that met the measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national criteria for inclusion in the GHI, and GHI scores were calculated levels over recent years and decades. GHI scores are based on for 107 of those countries based on data from 2015 to 2019. a formula that captures three dimensions of hunger—insufficient Data to calculate GHI scores come from published UN sources caloric intake (undernourishment), child undernutrition, and child (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World mortality—using four component indicators: Health Organization, UNICEF, and Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation), the World Bank, and Demographic and > UNDERNOURISHMENT: the share of the population that is Health Surveys. Of the 132 countries assessed, 25 did not have undernourished, reflecting insufficient caloric intake sufficient data to allow for the calculation of a 2020 GHI score, > CHILD WASTING: the share of children under the age of five who but provisional designations of the severity of hunger were are wasted (low weight-for-height), reflecting acute undernu- assigned to 18 of those countries based on other known data. trition For the remaining 7 countries, data were insufficient to allow > CHILD STUNTING: the share of children under the age of five for either calculating GHI scores or assigning provisional cate- who are stunted (low height-for-age), reflecting chronic under- gories. nutrition The GHI categorizes and ranks countries on a 100-point > CHILD MORTALITY: the mortality rate of children under the scale, where 0 is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the age of five worst. In practice, neither of these extremes is reached (Figure 2). FIGURE 2 NUMBER OF COUNTRIES BY HUNGER LEVEL GHI Severity Scale ≤ 9.9 10.0–19.9 20.0–34.9 35.0–49.9 ≥ 50.0 Low Moderate Serious Alarming Extremely alarming 48 countries 26 countries 40 countries 11 countries 0 countries 0 10 20 35 50 Source: Authors. Note: Of the tallies of countries listed, 1 was provisionally categorized as low, 9 were provisionally categorized as serious, and 8 were provisionally categorized as alarming. 3 2020 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX BY SEVERITY Greenland Iceland Finland Russian Federation Sweden Canada Norway Estonia Latvia United Denmark Lithuania Kingdom Belarus Neth. Poland Ireland Germany Bel. Czech Rep. Ukraine Lux. Kazakhstan Mongolia Slovakia Rep. of France Austria Hungary Switz. Slov. Moldova* Croatia Romania Italy Serbia DPR Korea Bos.& Georgia Herz. Mont.Bulgaria Uzbekistan Kyrgyzstan United States Spain N. Mace. Azerb. Japan Albania Armenia Tajikistan* Rep. of Korea of America Portugal Turkey Turkmenistan Greece China Cyprus Syrian Arab Tunisia Lebanon Republic* Afghanistan Morocco Israel/Palestinian Iraq Iran Territories Jordan Pakistan Kuwait Nepal Algeria Bhutan Bahrain Bahamas Libya Egypt Taiwan Mexico Saudi Qatar Bangladesh Cuba Western Sahara Arabia U. A. E. India Hong Kong Myanmar Lao Oman Jamaica Dominican Rep. Mauritania PDR* Belize Haiti Mali Niger* Philippines Honduras Sudan Eritrea Yemen* Thailand Guatemala Senegal Chad El Salvador Nicaragua Gambia Cambodia Guinea-Bissau* Burkina Faso Djibouti* Trinidad & Tobago Guinea* Nigeria Viet Nam Costa Rica Panama Benin Somalia* Côte Ethiopia Venezuela Guyana Sierra Leone Ghana Central South Sri Lanka Suriname d'Ivoire Togo African Sudan* Brunei Darussalam French