Hungry India

WASHINGTON

For most people, Sudan conjures up images of ethnic cleansing in its westernDarfur province, stark poverty and hunger. But in what will undoubtedly come asa rude shock to India, a Global Hunger Index developed by the International FoodPolicy Research Institute says the problem of malnutrition is more severe inIndia than in the African nation.

While the current "hot spots" of hunger and malnutrition are in SouthAsia and sub-Saharan Africa, India ranked 24th on the list of countries with thehighest levels of hunger. Sudan ranked 25th.

In India child malnutrition was linked to the low status of women in society.In South Asia "women, if they eat last in the family after all the men haveeaten, will end up being malnourished" and so they give birth toundernourished children, said Doris Wiesmann, the IFPRI researcher who developedthe index, in a conference call with reporters. "It has been observed that thewomen who have a say in the family, allocate more resources to their children’snutritional needs. Men have other priorities," she added.

Ms. Wiesmann said there had been a "great improvement" in South Asialargely due to the Green Revolution but it is still a "hot spot" ofmalnutrition. South Asia has higher levels of child under-nutrition thansub-Saharan Africa, but sub-Saharan Africa has higher rates of child mortality,the study finds. She noted a lack of political will to combat hunger and saidgovernments must focus on agriculture, education and health care policies.

Of the 12 countries that ranked worst on the Global Hunger Index, nine wereaffected by civil wars or violent conflicts. In these countries "soldiershijack food aid and land that is mined cannot be farmed," explained Ms.Wiesmann. Eritrea, Angola, Burundi, Cambodia, and Ethiopia were most seriouslyaffected by conflict and hunger.

The Global Hunger Index provides a particularly comprehensive measure ofglobal hunger because it ranks countries on three leading indicators andcombines them into one. "Alone, each indicator has limitations, but puttogether, they give us a much more complete picture of the state of hungeraround the world," Ms. Wiesmann said. The three indicators are: childmalnutrition, child mortality, and estimates of the proportion of people who arecalorie deficient.

"By combining these indicators, the index considers the food supplysituation of the total population and takes into account the specialvulnerability of children to nutritional deprivation. It also reflects the mosttragic consequence of under nutrition, which is death," said Marie Ruel,director of IFPRI’s Food Consumption and Nutrition Division.

Fulllist available at International Food Policy Research Institute

The Global Hunger Index has been calculated for 1981, 1992, 1997, and 2003.The latest round ranks 97 developing countries and 22 countries in transition.The index does not include highly industrialized countries, as well somedeveloping countries where data is not available, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, andSomalia. Scores have improved in South Asia and in most other parts of Asiasince 1981, despite the fact that many countries in this region still have highlevels of hunger.

"Another value of the index is to demonstrate which countries have not beenable to use their available economic resources effectively in reducing undernutrition," Ms. Wiesmann noted. "High income inequality is one of thefactors that causes countries to have higher levels of hunger and undernutrition than would be expected based on the gross national income per capita.Countries with high HIV infection rates also scored poorly on the index relativeto their level of economic development, highlighting the links between AIDS andhunger."

Joachim von Braun, IFPRI director general, said the purpose of the GlobalHunger index was to mobilize the political will to speed up urgently neededprogress in the fight against hunger in those countries that rank the worst.Crediting the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, he said hunger andpoverty have climbed to the top of the global development agenda, with thetarget of cutting hunger in half by 2015. "But we cannot be satisfied merelyto cut it in half. Hunger must be eradicated completely," he added.