Download here the GHI 2011

In mid-2011 a food emergency unfolded in the Horn of Africa. Suddenly pictures of emaciated children were back in the media. Millions of people in East Africa are facing a food crisis caused by a perfect storm of severe drought, food price spikes, and conflict, and exacerbated by the vulnerability of people and communities across the region.

Recent events in the Horn of Africa are a terrible reminder of the vulnerability of millions of poor around the world to weather and other shocks that interrupt their access to food. This humanitarian tragedy highlights two important motivations behind the Global Hunger Index (GHI) – the need for information and the need for action. Addressing the problem of hunger requires information about where and why hunger is occurring.

Information will not fill people’s stomachs, but policymakers and national and international agencies need it in order to take steps to ensure that people have access to sufficient and nutritious food. The broader task, though, is to take action to address the root causes of hunger and to reduce poor people’s vulnerability to shocks such as drought and food price spikes in the short, medium, and long term.

The concept of the GHI

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger globally and by country and region. Calculated each year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the GHI highlights successes and failures in hunger reduction and provides insights into the drivers of hunger. By raising awareness and understanding of regional and country differences in hunger, the GHI will, it is hoped, trigger actions to reduce hunger.

A number of different indicators can be used to measure hunger. To reflect the multidimensional nature of hunger, the GHI combines three equally weighted indicators in one index number: Undernourishment; Child undernutrition and Child mortality.

GHI 2011

The 2011 GHI report focuses particular attention on the issue of food price spikes and volatility, which have played a large role in the global food crises of 2007–08 and 2010–11. Many poor people already spend large shares of their incomes on food, and surges in food prices leave them unable to pay for the food, healthcare, housing, education, and other goods and services they need. In this report, an IFPRI researcher describes the factors that have contributed to the increasing and more volatile food prices of recent years and their effects on poor people in developing countries. Taming food price spikes and volatility will require that we understand the causes and address them appropriately.

Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe authors provide on-the-ground perspectives on the negative impacts of food price increases on poor people in Kenya and Tajikistan and describe the work of their organizations in helping to alleviate these impacts. Based on these research findings and experiences in the field, IFPRI, Concern Worldwide, and Welthungerhilfe propose actions to help prevent and mitigate the effects of high and volatile food prices and increase the resilience of communities, countries, and regions.

Recent events in the Horn of Africa remind us of an enduring truth: weather disasters and economic shocks will come, and they will strike the poor and the hungry hardest. But we have already learned a great deal about how to reduce vulnerability and how to work with people and institutions to effectively tackle poverty. It is time to apply this knowledge on a scale that will overcome hunger for all people.

Download the GHI 2011

See GHI 2010