Global Hunger Index 2007

A third of 91 developing countries are on track to cut hunger in half by 2015. Another third are making progress in the fight against hunger since 1990 – but not fast enough to reach the Millennium Development Goal. A quarter of countries, however, are stagnating or actually regressing (see chart). In four countries – Liberia, Swaziland, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo – the food situation has deteriorated considerably since 1990. These are the back markers in a field of countries ranked in October by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and German Agro Action.

At the top of the so-called Global Hunger Index are Cuba, Kuwait, Fiji, Peru and Uruguay, which are already close to achieving the UN goal. According to IFPRI researcher Doris Wiesmann, rays of hope in Africa are Mozambique, Ghana and Malawi. Ethiopia – once the archetypal country of hunger – is now seen to be making good progress, showing what can be achieved by investment in health, education and agriculture.

German Agro Action chairman Ingeborg Schäuble appealed to poor country governments to accept their responsibility to their own people and invest more vigorously in these areas. However, the industrialised countries should also review their efforts. Schäuble says they “are guilty of neglecting the poorest of the poor in rural areas”. (ell)