The Global Hunger Index 2008 was released last week by the International Food Policy Research Institute, and it shows that 33 countries have alarming or extremely alarming levels of hunger. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the hungriest country on the planet, followed by Eritrea, Burundi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ethiopia. It is no surprise that the top candidates on the list are countries in Africa.
According to Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, “The world has made only slow progress in reducing hunger in past decades, with dramatic differences among countries and regions. Population and income growth, high energy prices, biofuels, science and technology, climate change, globalization, and urbanization are introducing drastic changes to food consumption, production, and markets.”
Although many parts of the world have significantly improved food security in the past 20 years, there has been minimal progress in sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia has a high prevalence of children under five who are underweight, largely as a result of the lower nutritional and educational status of women, poor nutrition and health programs, and inadequate water and sanitation services. Because the 2008 Index was based on data from 2006, it does not take into account this year’s surge in global food prices.