The 2020 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that although hunger worldwide has gradually declined since 2000, in many places progress is too slow and hunger remains severe. These areas are highly vulnerable to a worsening of food and nutrition insecurity exacerbated by the health, economic, and environmental crises of 2020.
Progress Is Too Slow, or Even Being Reversed, in Many Countries
Alarming levels of hunger have been identified in 3 countries—Chad, Timor-Leste, and Madagascar—based on GHI scores. Based on other known data, alarming hunger has also been provisionally identified in another 8 countries—Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Hunger is at serious levels in 31 countries and provisionally categorized as serious in another 9 countries. In many countries the situation is progressing too slowly or even worsening. The latest projections show that 37 countries will fail to achieve even low hunger by 2030. For 46 countries in the moderate, serious, or alarming categories, GHI scores have improved since 2012, but for 14 countries in those categories, GHI scores show that hunger and undernutrition have worsened. Even in some countries without hunger crises at the national level, marginalized groups and selected regions face tragically high levels of hunger and undernutrition. For some countries, data for calculating GHI scores are not available. It is crucial to strengthen data collection to gain a clearer picture of food and nutrition security in every country so that actions designed to eliminate hunger can be adapted to conditions on the ground.
Hunger Is Moderate on a Global Scale but Varies Widely by Region
Hunger worldwide, represented by a GHI score of 18.2, is at a moderate level, down from a 2000 GHI score of 28.2, classified as serious. In both Africa South of the Sahara and South Asia, hunger is classified as serious, owing partly to large shares of people who are undernourished and high rates of child stunting. Moreover, Africa South of the Sahara has the world’s highest rate of child mortality, while South Asia has the world’s highest rate of child wasting. In contrast, hunger levels in Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, East and Southeast Asia, and West Asia and North Africa are characterized as low or moderate, although hunger is high among certain groups within these regions.
Many Countries Are at Risk from the Current Crises
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn, as well as a massive outbreak of desert locusts in the Horn of Africa, are exacerbating food and nutrition insecurity for millions of people, as these crises come on top of existing hunger caused by conflict and climate extremes. The GHI scores presented in this report do not yet reflect the impact of the overlapping disasters of 2020, but they point to areas where hunger and undernutrition are already severe, putting their populations at greater risk of acute food crises and chronic hunger in the future.
Policies on Food and Health Are Dangerously Fragmented
A One Health lens reveals how our current challenges are interconnected and makes it clear that human, animal, and environmental health and fair trade relations must be considered holistically. It brings into focus the ecosystem impact of our food system, the fragility of global and local food supply chains, the way emergency responses can undermine local food systems, the inadequacy of many social protection systems, the injustice underlying some global trade and aid relationships, and the impacts of these conditions on the health of people and the planet.
Achieving Zero Hunger Means Reshaping Food Systems
An integrated approach to health and food and nutrition security is needed to ensure the right to adequate and nutritious food for all and to end hunger. Some actions must be taken immediately, such as treating the production and supply of food as essential services and involving community organizations to extend the reach of social protection programs. Others must be tackled over the coming decade and beyond, such as eliminating inequitable trade and investment arrangements that hold back low- and middle-income countries and working toward a circular food economy that recycles resources and materials, regenerates natural systems, and eliminates waste and pollution. At this crucial moment, we must act to reshape our food systems as fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly in order to address the current crises, prevent other health and food crises from occurring, and chart a path to Zero Hunger by 2030.
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