Bangladesh 90th among 118 countries on Global Hunger Index

Despite persistent improvement in many human development indicators in the past eight years, Bangladesh remains at the lower end of the Global Hunger index.

According to the Global Hunger Index of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI), Bangladesh is ranked 90 among 118 countries.But it is ahead of India (97), Pakistan (107) and Afghanistan (111).

In 2008, Bangladesh's score was 32.4 but now it has improved to 27.1.

Bangladesh is ranked behind Nepal (72), Myanmar (75) and Sri Lanka (84).

The GHI score is based on measurements of undernourishment, the prevalence of wasting (low weight for height) and stunting (low height for age) among children and the child mortality rate (percentage of child deaths before age of 5).

The information is used to calculate a score on a 100-point scale.

An increase in the country’s GHI score indicates a worsening of the hunger situation and a decrease indicates an improvement.

The IFPRI reports that the world GHI score has decreased by 29 percent since 2000.

The GHI index among developing countries has decreased by 27 percent over the same period.

However, the IFPRI says 50 countries, including Bangladesh, suffer from ‘serious’ or ‘alarming’ levels of hunger.

The report’s statistics on Bangladesh show 16.4 percent of the population suffers from undernourishment, 14.3 percent of children under five years suffer from wasting, 36.4 percent of children under five suffer from stunting and 3.8 percent of children die before the age of five.

Sixteen countries share the top positions on the list, with GHI scores under 5.

At 118th place is the Central African Republic, with a GHI score of 46.1