Hunger levels in developing countries have fallen 29 percent since 2000, but efforts to curb hunger must be accelerated in order to meet an international target to eradicate it by 2030, the publisher of an annual index on hunger said yesterday.
Hunger levels are “alarming” in seven countries, with the Central African Republic, Chad and Zambia experiencing the worst levels, according to the Global Hunger Index.
Haiti, which is reeling from last week’s Hurricane Matthew and still recovering from a massive 2010 earthquake, has the fourth-highest hunger score.
Another 43 countries, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia, have “serious” hunger levels.
At the current rate of decline, more than 45 countries — including India, Pakistan, Haiti, Yemen and Afghanistan — will have “moderate” to “alarming” hunger scores in the year 2030, the authors of the index said.
“Countries must accelerate the pace at which they are reducing hunger” if they are to meet the 2030 target, Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute director-general Fan Shenggen (樊胜根) said in a statement.
“Ending global hunger is certainly possible, but it’s up to all of us ... [to] set the priorities right to ensure that governments, the private sector and civil society devote the time and resources necessary,” Fan added.
World leaders last year agreed on a 2030 deadline for ending global hunger as part of the Sustainable Development Goals — an ambitious plan for tackling poverty, hunger and inequality.
The institute produces the annual index, along with aid agencies Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
Overall, about 795 million people go to bed hungry every night.
“We have the technology, knowledge and resources to achieve [zero hunger]. What is missing is both the urgency and the political will to turn commitments into action,” Concern Worldwide chief executive officer Dominic MacSorley said.
The hunger index ranks countries based on undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting (low weight for height) and child stunting (low height for age).
This year’s report ranked 118 developing countries.
Nearly half of the population in the Central African Republic and Zambia, and one in three people in Chad, are undernourished, it showed.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest hunger levels, followed closely by South Asia.
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