This report was published jointly by the organisations Concern Worldwide, Ireland, and Welthungerhilfe, Germany, in October 2021. The first annual Global Hunger Index (GHI) report was published in 2006. This 16th edition emphasises the impact of the climate crisis, Covid-19 pandemic and violent conflicts on global hunger. It also tracks the progress made towards achieving the second goal of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – ‘Zero Hunger’.Quoting the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the 2019 GHI report states that ‘food deprivation’ or ‘undernourishment’ refers to the “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 2021 report uses data collected from 116 countries between 2016-2020, and tracks hunger at global, regional, and national levels. It gives each country a score which measures hunger on a 100-point scale, ranging from ‘low ‘(less than or equal to the score 9.9), ‘moderate’ (10-19.9), ‘serious’ (20-34.9), ‘alarming’ (35-49.9) to ‘extremely alarming’ (greater than or equal to 50).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.
