The global incidence of hunger is declining, although the situation remains serious in certain Asian and African regions, the 2018 Global Hunger Index (GHI) published on Thursday by the German "Welthungerhilfe" organization found.
According to the group, overall hunger levels across the world as measured by the GHI have now fallen by 28 percent between 2000 and 2018. Welthungerhilfe noted that the incidence of child mortality also halved during the same period. At the same time, however, approximately 821 million people across the world did not have access to sufficient nutrition.
"This year's Global Hunger Index reveals a distressing gap between the current rate of progress in the fight against hunger and undernutrition and the rate of progress needed to eliminate hunger and alleviate human suffering", the report read.
The GHI was designed to measure various dimensions of hunger and malnutrition. It is intended to increase awareness and understanding of the fight against hunger, and to allow people to compare the level of hunger across countries and regions. The GHI is meant to draw attention to regions of the world where resources are most urgently needed, to end hunger. The annual report has been published jointly by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide since 2005.
The Welthungerhilfe estimates that countries experiencing violent conflict have an incidence of hunger which is twice as high than in the rest of the world on average. The group warned that, in spite of some progress, further efforts were required on behalf of the international community to meet a target to prevent famines until the year 2030 at the latest.
