In 2030, without rapid reversal of the trend, 582 million people will still be chronically undernourished, half in Africa.
CESVI presents the Italian edition of the 19th Global Hunger Index (GHI): ‘Severe or alarming malnutrition in 42 countries, Zero Hunger goal further and further away. It is necessary to act concretely and incisively on the problem of hunger, putting human rights first in the implementation of policies on climate, nutrition and food systems’.
The paradox of women: they are more than 60 per cent of the hungry, but they have the role of pillar of food security in the family. Children at risk already in the first days of life or even before birth.
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 is what emerges from the Global Hunger Index 2024 (Global Hunger Index – GHI), one of the main international reports on the measurement of hunger in the world, edited by CESVI for the Italian edition and drawn up annually by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Wordlwide, humanitarian organisations that are part of the Alliance2015 European network – of which CESVI is also a member – and, from this year, together with IFHV – Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict.
In 2023 there were 733 million (over 152 million more than in 2019) people suffering from hunger, one in 11 people worldwide and one in five in Africa. Nearly 3 billion have been unable to afford a healthy diet due to rising food prices and the cost of living crisis.
‘Acute food insecurity and the risk of famine are on the rise and the use of hunger as a weapon of war is rampant,’ explains Stefano Piziali, CESVI’s General Manager. ‘Underlying these alarming figures is a state of permanent crisis caused by widespread conflicts, the growing impact of climate change, economic problems, debt crises and inequalities. Intervening is still possible, although it is becoming increasingly urgent to do so in a rapid and structured manner. Some countries have, in fact, shown that progress is an achievable goal: in Somalia, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Nepal and Togo, for example, there have been significant reductions in GHI malnutrition scores, although hunger still remains a serious problem’.
ALARMING OR ACUTE HUNGER IN 42 COUNTRIES. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) measures hunger at the global, regional and national levels based on four indicators: undernourishment, child wasting, stunted child growth and under-five mortality.
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. ‘The progress made in the fight against hunger between 2000 and 2016 shows that substantial improvement is possible, even within a reasonable timeframe,’ Piziali points out, ‘but unfortunately since 2016, when the global GHI score was 18.8, for the world as a whole and for many countries, progress has stalled and in some countries there have even been reversals’.
In as many as two-thirds of the 130 countries analysed in the GHI 2024, undernourishment did not improve or even increased. In particular, in 22 countries with moderate, serious or alarming GHI 2024 scores, a worsening compared to 2016 was noted, and in five countries (Venezuela, Syria, Libya, Jordan and Fiji) even compared to 2000. Based on current GHI projections, at the current rate, there are at least 64 countries that will not reach low hunger levels, let alone the Zero Hunger goal, by 2030. In fact, it is estimated that at the current rate, 582 million people will still be chronically undernourished in 2030, half of them in Africa; a number comparable to the undernourished population in 2015, the year in which the world pledged to eliminate hunger by 2030.
The GHI also shows that acute food insecurity is rapidly worsening, with famine conditions on the rise, in several states and territories, including Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Mali and South Sudan, and that only in a small number of countries (Bangladesh, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Somalia and Togo) have significant improvements been recorded, although hunger levels remain too high.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the child stunting also increased between 2016 and 2023, with critical situations in Haiti, Brazil and Argentina. Haiti, in particular, is among the countries with the largest increases in GHI scores between 2016 and 2023, mainly due to rising malnutrition: hunger levels are rising dramatically, while the country faces a number of concomitant shocks, including erratic rainfall, inflation and political turmoil that has generated gang violence and internal displacement.
GENDER INEQUALITY THREATENS FOOD SECURITY. In addition to assessing trends and analysing hunger levels, this year’s GHI report delves into the importance of addressing gender inequality to achieve climate resilience and the Zero Hunger goal.
‘Gender inequality is one of the most pervasive threats to sustainable development and to the realisation of the right to food,’ Piziali explains. ‘Women are in fact the protagonists of a real paradox: they are more than 60 per cent of people who suffer from hunger despite being a pillar of their families’ food security. More than 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries is in fact female, even though women own a very small percentage of agricultural land and have limited access to resources such as seeds, fertilisers and credit’.
Women’s food insecurity affects children. In fact, child malnutrition is closely related to maternal malnutrition, perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of hunger and poverty that affects children as early as the first days of life or even before birth: more than 9 million women and girls suffer from acute malnutrition during pregnancy and lactation. The situation gets even worse as they grow up: more than 36 million children under the age of five are malnourished, and of these more than 9 million suffer from severe malnutrition and are therefore in need of urgent care.
The GHI shows 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 to address structural inequalities such as class dynamics and corporate control over production systems.
THE REGIONS OF THE WORLD MOST AFFECTED BY HUNGER. Although GHI scores have improved significantly over the past two decades, 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.
Africa South of the Sahara has the highest rates of malnutrition and child mortality. Between 2016 and 2023, undernourishment increased especially in West and Central Africa, due to conflicts and economic crises. In 2022, 72% of the population could not afford a healthy diet, the highest rate in the world. Furthermore, in five countries in the region, more than 1 in 10 children die before the age of five, and the area has the highest global neonatal mortality rate (40%). Added to this are the consequences of climate change, which has reduced agricultural productivity by 34% since 1961 in the region. In Zimbabwe and Zambia, one of the worst droughts ever recorded has devastated subsistence crops. Similarly, many East African countries experienced the most severe drought in 40 years, leading to crop failures, livestock losses, reduced water availability and increased conflict.
The high regional level of hunger in South Asia is largely driven by the increase in child undernutrition and malnutrition to consistently high levels, caused by poor diet quality, economic hardship and the increasing impact of natural disasters. The region has the highest rate of child wasting of any region in the world. In Afghanistan, food security has deteriorated since 2016 due to conflict, economic instability and disasters affecting agriculture and aid. The country has experienced a significant increase in malnutrition and one of the highest rates of child stunting, equal only to Niger. Pakistan is affected by high inflation, fiscal deficits and natural disasters. The extreme floods of 2022, linked to climate change, have further aggravated the food crisis.
‘The GHI strongly emphasises that there is no more time,’ Piziali concludes, ‘it is imperative to take concrete and incisive action on the problem of hunger, putting human rights at the forefront of the implementation of policies on climate, nutrition and food systems. In particular, as the strategic recommendations in the report make clear, it is crucial to strengthen the sense of accountability to international law and the enforceability of the right to adequate food, to promote gender transformative approaches to food systems and climate policies and programmes, and to make investments that integrate and promote gender, climate and food justice, redistributing public resources in a way that corrects structural inequalities’.
The Italian version of the GHI is edited by CESVI with the contribution of PwC in Italy.