Global Hunger Index 2011

Global hunger has declined but is still characterized as "serious." This is the gist of the Global Hunger Index (GHI) released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The highest GHI scores occur in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, and Vietnam registered the largest improvements between the 1990 GHI and the 2011 GHI. Twenty-six countries are still in the extremely alarming or alarming levels. Countries with extremely alarming 2011 GHI scores are Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eritrea, all in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo is top among six countries where the hunger situation worsened.

Rising and more volatile prices have affected world food markets due to the following reasons: increasing use of food crops for biofuels, extreme weather events and climate change, and increased volume of trading in commodity futures markets. IFPRI says this situation has serious implications for poor and hungry people who have little capacity to adjust to price spikes and rapid shifts.

See the IFPRI release at  http://www.ifpri.org/publication/2011-global-hunger-index?utm_source=New+At+IFPRI&utm_campaign=093ddeabbb-New_at_IFPRI_10_12_2011&utm_medium=email. Download the full report at http://www,ifpri.org/.