“The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child ... has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.” - General Comment 12 of UN Economic and Social Council

Summary
The 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that the world has made slow progress in reducing food insecurity since 1990, with dramatic differences among regions and countries.

In the nearly two decades since 1990, some regions — South and Southeast Asia, the Near East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean — have made significant headway in improving food security. Nevertheless, the GHI remains high in South Asia. The GHI is similarly high in Sub-Saharan Africa, where progress has been marginal since 1990.

The GHI level in the world as a whole remains serious. The countries with the most worrisome hunger status and the highest 2008 GHI scores are predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Burundi, Niger, and Sierra Leone at the bottom of the list. Several dozen countries in various regions have GHI scores categorized as low.

Hunger is closely tied to poverty, and countries with high levels of hunger are overwhelmingly low- or low-middle-income countries. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions with the highest GHI scores and the highest poverty rates.

The recent advent of higher food prices has uneven effects across countries, depending on a range of factors, including whether countries are net importers or exporters of food. Among the countries for which the GHI is calculated, net cereal importers, for example, greatly outnumber exporters, implying that many more countries combating hunger are likely to suffer from higher prices than benefit from them. Higher food prices have also caused violent and nonviolent protests in dozens of countries.

In this context of higher food prices, prospects for improving food and nutrition security do not appear favorable, given that at least 800 million people were food insecure even before the food price crisis hit. Higher food prices cut into poor households’ food budgets, with particularly serious risks for undernourished infants and children. High prices also reduce the amount of food aid that donors can supply with a given amount of funds.

Combating the food crisis will require more food aid for poor people; much greater investments
in agriculture, especially the small farm sector; more investment in social protection programs and social sectors like education and health; reforms to create a fair world trading system; changes to biofuel policies; measures to calm global food markets; better data collection and improved monitoring of the food and nutrition situation; and more support for nongovernmental organizations that work on behalf of poor people in developing countries.

Visit The Challenge of Hunger: The 2008 Global Hunger Index Download Page

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Klaus von Grebmer, Heidi Fritschel, Bella Nestorova, Tolulope Olofinbiyi, Rajul Pandya-Lorch, and Yisehac Yohannes
Published by Welthungerhilfe, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Concern Worldwide

Table of Contents
Summary
1 the Concept of the Global Hunger Index
2 Global and Regional Trends
3 The vicious circle of hunger and poverty
4 Rising Food Prices intensify the hunger crisis
5 Children suffer most from malnutrition
6 Action plans Against hunger
A ppendix
A Data Sources and Calculation of the Global Hunger Index
B Bibliography
C Data underlying the calculation of the Global Hunger Index

Hunger: Major Threat in 33 Countries
The 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI) report comes at a time of dramatic changes in world food markets, with high food prices threatening the food security of millions of vulnerable households. Hunger and malnutrition are back in the headlines.

This is the third year that the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has calculated this multidimensional measure of global hunger. The 2006 and 2007 GHI reports received a great deal of public attention and were the subject of extensive debate. By stimulating discussion, the GHI reports have served as an important tool to highlight the countries and regions where action is most needed. They are important ways of recording the state of hunger worldwide and country by country and of supporting lobby work and advocacy on both national and international platforms.

It is important to remember that this report offers a picture of the past, not the present. The calculation of the GHI is limited by the collection of data by various governments and international agencies. The 2008 GHI incorporates data only until 2006 — the most recent available.

This GHI report therefore does not reflect recent increases in food and energy prices. The report does, however, highlight the countries and regions facing the greatest risk in the current context of high food prices. 33 countries have levels of hunger that are alarming or extremely alarming. The index shows that South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa continue to suffer from high levels of hunger, and whereas South Asia has made rapid progress in combating hunger, Sub-Saharan Africa has made only marginal progress. For hungry and malnourished people in these regions, rising food prices pose serious threats. People who already had too little food for a healthy life are now finding that they can afford even less.

Hunger is one of the most important problems the world faces, and rapid progress in overcoming it is long overdue. IFPRI is working to produce analysis of the status of hunger and policy options to combat it. Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and Concern offer direct support to undernourished people in hunger crisis zones and work with partners on short- and long-term solutions to chronic malnutrition.

We hope that this report stimulates much-needed discussion among other actors over precisely what actions should be taken to overcome hunger worldwide, and who should take them, so that all people can live free of hunger and malnutrition.

Dr. Hans-Joachim Preuss,
Secretary General of Welthungerhilfe
Prof. Joachim von Braun,
Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute
Tom Arnold,
Chief Executive of Concern Worldwide

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