Global Hunger Index
Key Findings and Facts
- The top ten countries most on track to meet the Global Hunger Index target based on the Millennium Development Goals are Cuba, Kuwait, Fiji, Peru, Uruguay, Egypt, Tunisia, Djibouti, Syria, and Iran.
- The ten countries that have experienced the greatest setbacks towards achieving the Global Hunger Index target by 2015 are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Swaziland, Liberia, North Korea, the Comoros, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, and Venezuela.
- According to the Global Hunger Index, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have the highest levels of hunger, followed by Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Liberia, Niger, Yemen, Angola, and the Comoros, almost all of which have been involved in violent conflicts in the past decade.
- The first Millennium Development Goal (eradicating extreme poverty and hunger) and the fourth MDG (reducing child mortality) set measurable targets for all three GHI indicators—the proportion of people who are calorie deficient, the prevalence of underweight in children (indicating undernutrition), and the under-five mortality rate.
- The Global Hunger Index ranks countries for six different years to measure progress over time. It has been calculated for 1981, 1990, 1992, 1997, 2003, and 2004. The most recent round ranks 118 countries.
- The index does not include highly industrialized countries, as well as some developing countries where data are not available (such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia).
- By using three indicators, the Global Hunger Index considers the food supply situation of the total population and takes into account the special vulnerability of children to nutritional deprivation. It also reflects the most tragic consequence of undernutrition, which is death.