Bangladesh has gone up several notches in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) in 2014.
Published : 16 Oct 2014, 04:34 PM
A joint press release published on Oct 13 by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide in Washington says Bangladesh is now ranked 57 in 2014 GHI.
Its current GHI score is 19.1 against 36.6 in the 1990 GHI. So it has almost brought down by half the number of people suffering from hunger.
Apart from Bangladesh, Angola, Thailand, Vietnam and Ghana have significantly improved their positions in GHI 2014 .
But levels of hunger are still ''extremely alarming'' in Burundi and Eritrea and "alarming" in 14 countries. War-torn Iraq is one of the poor performers in 2014 GHI.
The release also says two billion people are now suffering from ''hidden hunger''---a state where one suffers from chronic lack of vitamins and minerals and are increasingly vulnerable to mental impairment, poor health and poor productivity.
The GHI, a comprehensive measurement tool to track hunger globally and regionally, consists of three equally weighted indicators: undernourishment, child underweight and child mortality.
This year's GHI calculated examining state of hunger in 120 countries.
Compared to the 1990 score, the 2014 GHI score is down by 39 percent. This marks a significant progress in the combat against hunger. However, 805 million people are still hungry in today's world.
Sub-Sahara Africa has the highest regional GHI score followed by South Asia. But among the regions, South Asia and East and Southeast Asia have recorded huge improvements in absolute terms.
IFPRI's Director General Shenggen Fan said in the press release, "The GHI shows the hunger has been decreasing since 1990,but there is much more to be done to address hunger---including hidden hunger---to ensure food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable."
CEO of Concern Worldwide Dominic MacSorley said, "The great news is that we have clear evidence proving that investment in nutrition is one of the smartest development investments we can make. What is needed now is more practical action on the ground , such as our RAIN project in Zambia.
" We need more political actions at the international level to end all forms of malnutrition."