The Global Hunger Index, GHI, is a statistical tool for collecting data on famine in the world and malnutrition in various countries.

Read the full report and synopsis of the 2024 Global Hunger Index.

The Index has been adopted and developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) which published it for the first time in 2006. The German NGO Welthungerhilfe and the Irish Concern Worldwide, European partners in the Alliance2015 network, collaborate in the annual production, and, from this year, together with IFHV – Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict. Since 2008, the Italian edition is curated by Cesvi.

The Index classifies countries on a scale of 100 points, where 0 represents the best possible value (absence of hunger) and 100 the worst. The higher the value the worse is the state of nutrition of a country. Values below 9.9 show a very low incidence of hunger, while from 10 to 19.9 the value is moderate. Values from 20 to 34.9 show up a serious situation of hunger, while values from 35 to 49.9 the situation are alarming. Above 50 the problem of hunger is to be considered extremely alarming.

The GHI combines four indicators:

  • the percentage of population that is undernourished;
  • the percentage of children under five that are emaciated (inadequate ratio between weight and height);
  • the percentage of children under five with growth delay (inadequate ratio between height and age);
  • the mortality rate for children under five.

Every year the Index focuses on a specific theme that represents the multidimensionality of the “hunger” problem and possible solutions – as well as updating the data on hunger in the world at regional, national and local levels. The most recent editions have focused on the link between hunger and human health, climate change, forced migration, inequalities in the access to food and resources and the theme of hunger in the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

2024 Global Hunger Index: How gender justice can advance climate resilience and Zero Hunger

Extreme climatic events and wars have increased the number of hungry people by more than 26% in just four years, and global progress in combating malnutrition is slowing down alarmingly, pushing the goal of Zero Hunger by 2030 further and further away: if this rate is maintained, the world will only reach a low level of hunger in 2160, more than 130 years from now.

This year the world’s GHI score is 18.3, or moderate hunger. In 6 countries (Somalia, Burundi, Chad, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen), despite improvements in some of them, hunger was still alarmingly high and in a further 36 a serious level of hunger was found. In as many as two-thirds of the 130 countries analysed in the GHI 2024, undernourishment did not improve or even increased.

Africa South of the Sahara and South Asia remain the regions with the highest levels of hunger in the world, with GHI scores of 26.8 and 26.2 (severe level) respectively. 

The focus of the 2024 report delves into the importance of addressing gender inequality to achieve climate resilience and the Zero Hunger goal. It emerges that gender justice, which is essential for an equitable and sustainable future, is based on recognition (changing discriminatory gender norms), redistribution (allocating resources and opportunities to correct gender inequalities) and representation (reducing the gender gap in women’s participation in politics and decision-making): to achieve real change, it is crucial to ensure women’s access to resources and address structural inequalities such as class dynamics and corporate control over production systems.