Global Hunger Index Reveals Hunger Levels to Stay High for Another 136 Years

The 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI) published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe found that at least 64 countries will not reach even low hunger levels until the year 2160 if progress to tackle hunger remains at the same pace observed since 2016.

It reveals that hunger levels are at serious or alarming levels in 42 countries and that progress in addressing hunger has stagnated.

Conflicts have led to exceptional food crises and raised the specter of famine in countries and territories like Gaza and Sudan (where there is already famine in the North Darfur region) the GHI warns.

The sobering report states that the chances of achieving zero hunger by 2030, a goal set by UN member states in 2012, are “grim” and unlikely.

Of the 136 countries examined, 36 have levels considered serious while six at the bottom of the index have alarming hunger levels, indicating widespread human misery, undernourishment, and malnutrition. They are Somalia, Yemen, Chad, Madagascar, Burundi and South Sudan.

It states that in 2023, 281.6 million people in 59 countries and territories faced crisis-level or acute food insecurity including Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and Burkina Faso, which are all countries where Concern supports the most vulnerable people.

It also states that Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia are the regions with the worst levels of hunger.

The report shows that there has been notable progress made to tackle hunger between 2000 and 2016 and it states that this shows how much can be accomplished in just a decade and a half – however it notes that this progress has slowed over the last eight years.

This year’s GHI report highlights the links between gender inequality, food insecurity and climate change, showing how these challenges combine and put households, communities and countries under extreme stress.

The report contains an essay by academics from universities in England, Ghana, and the Netherlands outlining how “gender justice” and equality are central to effective climate action and food systems transformation. 

The GHI, now in its 19th year, ranks countries based on recorded levels of undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. 

To read the 2024 GHI report visit https://www.globalhungerindex.org/.