Sub-Saharan Africa are falling a long way short of meeting the United Nations goals to cut hunger and child mortality by 2015, according to the new Global Hunger Index.
The Index is compiled by the Washington-based, International Food Policy Research Institute (IEPRI). In conjunction with international aid agencies German AgroAction and Concern Worldwide. By combining three key indicators — the proportion of people who are calorie deficient. The levels of malnutrition among children, and child mortality — it ranks 118 developing’ and transitional’ countries. It shows that Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have suffered the greatest setbacks.
These are followed by Swaziland, Liberia and North Korea while the Comoros, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau and Venezuela make up the rest of the 10 most vulnerable countries. Torn Arnold, Chief Executive of Concern Worldwide, stressed that progress is also being made in many areas of the world. Cuba, Kuwait, Fiji, Peru and Uruguay top the list of countries on track to halve hunger and cut the number of children who die by two- thirds.. Good progress has also been made in India.
“The Sub-Saharan Africa countries of Mozambique, Ghana and Malawi have made significant strides in reducing hunger while Ethiopia is also very close to being on track to achieving the Millennium Development Goal. However, the reality remains that if progress contiflues at current rates, the vast majority of the 118 countries listed in the Index will fail to meet the 2015 targets.”
The Global Hunger Index report also highlights some of the innovative ways that are being used to alleviate hunger. One of these, Community Therapeutic Care (CTC) has been pioneered by Concern and is an efficient and low-cost method of treating people in the community rather than in special feeding centres. It has recently been adopted by the UN as best international practice in the fight against hunger.
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