The 2021 Global Hunger Index (GHI) revealed that Pakistan has made improvements over the years, as the nation was rated 92nd out of 116, despite the fact that the globe remains off-track in the battle against hunger and moving further away from the legally binding objective of ending hunger by 2030.
Since 2007, Concern Worldwide of Ireland and Welthungerhilfe (WHH) have released the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a peer-reviewed publication that tracks hunger around the world.
The nutrition division of the Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) Secretariat in the planning ministry attended a launch event for the chapter on Pakistan on Tuesday at a nearby hotel.
The Demographic and Health Surveys of Pakistan (DHSP) and government-led or carried out nutrition-related surveys throughout the nation are mainly the sources of data used to create the report each year.
It is worth mentioning that developed countries are not included in the survey so the report is based on the situation of developing and under-developed countries. This year, data of only 116 countries was available. As per the report, the country considered to have a reduced ratio of hunger is close to zero and ones close to 100 are considered to have a higher hunger ratio.
This year, Pakistan with a score of 24.7 is ranked 92 out of 116 countries with sufficient data available. India has been ranked at 101 but other countries of the region showed better ranking as compared to Pakistan. Sri Lanka was ranked 65th whereas Nepal and Bangladesh were ranked 76th.
Data from the most recent United Nations report is alarming because it shows that there are more hungry and underprivileged people than ever before. There are currently 811 million hungry people in the globe, and 41 million people are on the edge of starvation. By 2030, 47 nations will still have high levels of hunger, including 28 in Africa.
The chapter on Pakistan demonstrates that the situation with regard to hunger has improved since 2000. The ratio was 36.7 in 2000, 33.1 in 2006, 32.1 in 2012, and subsequently decreased to 24.7 in 2021.
Aisha Jamshed, country director for Welthungerhilfe, welcomed attendees to the event and spoke with them about the GHI’s goal as well as the organization’s work helping communities that are food insecure build resilience in partnership with the corporate sector, government, and civil society.
Speaking to the audience were Food and Nutrition Security Advisor Omer Bangash, Dr. Omer Tarar, Principal Scientific Officer from Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dr. Nazeer Ahmed, Chief of Nutrition at the Ministry of Planning, and Chris Kaye, Country Director for the World Food Program.
