2020 Global Hunger Index: One Decade to Zero Hunger, Linking Health and Sustainable Food Systems

This report was published jointly by Concern Worldwide, Ireland, and Welthungerhilfe, Germany, in October 2020. The first annual Global Hunger Index (GHI) report was published in 2006. This 15th edition emphasises the link between health and sustainable food systems, as well as the second goal of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – ‘Zero Hunger’.The GHI “is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.” Quoting the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the report states that ‘food deprivation’ or ‘undernourishment’ refers to “the consumption of too few calories to provide the minimum amount of dietary energy that each individual requires to live a healthy and productive life, given that person’s sex, age, stature, and physical activity level.”The GHI is calculated using four indicators: ‘undernourishment’ (the share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient), ‘child wasting’ (the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition), ‘child stunting’ (the share of children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition), and ‘child mortality’ (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).This report uses data collected by various United Nations agencies – including the Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund – and other organisations such as the World Bank.