Pakistan, India unlikely to end hunger by 2030 under SDG: report

LAHORE: A number of countries, including Pakistan and India, are not on the course to end hunger till the deadline of 2030 set under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, showed an international report on Tuesday.

The 2016 Global Hunger Index report said more than 45 countries - including India, Pakistan, Haiti, Yemen, and Afghanistan - will still have “moderate” to “alarming” hunger scores in 2030, “far short of the goal to end hunger by that year, if menace of hunger declines at the same rate as the report finds it has since 1992.”

“Simply put, countries must accelerate the pace at which they are reducing hunger or we will fail to achieve the second sustainable development goal,” said Shenggen Fan, director general at Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

IFPRI designed the tool -- Global Hunger Index (GHI) – to measure and track hunger globally.

“Ending global hunger is certainly possible, but it’s up to all of us that we set the priorities right to ensure that governments, the private sector and civil society devote the time and resources necessary to meet this important goal,” Fan said.

The Central African Republic, Chad, and Zambia have the highest levels of hunger, according to the report. 

Seven countries have “alarming” levels of hunger, while 43 countries – including high-population countries like India, Nigeria, and Indonesia – have “serious” hunger levels.

The report outlined some bright spots in the fight to end world hunger. The level of hunger in developing countries has fallen 29 percent since 2000. Twenty countries, including Rwanda, Cambodia and Myanmar, have all reduced their GHI scores by more than 50 percent each since 2000. 

But, declines in average hunger levels across regions or individual countries do not tell the whole story.

The averages can mask lagging areas where millions are still hungry, demonstrating the need for data and targeted solutions for the communities facing the greatest need. 

Though the Latin America region has the lowest regional GHI score in the developing world, yet Haiti, for example, has the fourth highest GHI score at an “alarming” 36.9. Mexico has a low level of overall hunger, but also contains areas within its borders where child stunting — an indicator of child under-nutrition — is relatively high.

“Whilst the world has made progress in the fight against hunger, there are still 795 million people condemned to facing hunger every day of their lives,” said Dominic MacSorley, chief executive officer of Concern Worldwide. 

The GHI, now in its 11th year, ranks countries based on four key indicators: undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting and child stunting.

The 2016 report ranked 118 countries in the developing world, almost half of which have serious or alarming hunger levels.

The GHI score for the developing world as a whole is 21.3, which is in the low end of the serious category.

Regionally, Africa south of the Sahara has the highest hunger level, followed closely by South Asia. Rounding out the top 10 countries with the highest levels of hunger after Central African Republic, Chad, and Zambia are Haiti, Madagascar, Yemen, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste and Niger.

Around half of the populations of Haiti, Zambia, and the Central African Republic are undernourished — the highest in the report.

In Timor-Leste, Burundi, and Papua New Guinea, approximately half of children under five are too short for their age due to nutritional deficiencies.

“The 2030 Agenda set a clear global objective for an end to hunger - everywhere - within the next 14 years,” says David Nabarro, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change. “Too many people are hungry today.

There is a need for urgent, thoughtful and innovative action to ensure that no one ever goes hungry again.”