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How Hunger Has Changed Across the Developing World

Kandahar

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Global hunger index: Feed the world | The Economist

Bad news typically dominates the headlines, but in the grand scheme of things the world has really improved a lot in recent years. In the last two decades, hunger has declined by huge amounts almost everywhere in the world.

According to the Global Hunger Index:

- Two-thirds of countries (including the two largest, China and India) have made significant progress in combating hunger in the last 20 years. The overall index has fallen by more than 25%. Of the remaining one-third, most of the countries are merely stagnant rather than getting worse.

- The only countries that are significantly more hungry today than they were in 1990 are Burundi, Comoros, Congo (DR), North Korea, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe.

- The most malnourished nations in the world: The DR Congo (75% of citizens), Eritrea (66%), Burundi (63%), and Haiti (58%).

- The prevalence of underweight children is the highest in: Timor-Leste (45%), India (44%), Bangladesh (41%), and Nepal (39%).

- Under-five mortality rates are the highest in: Afghanistan (26%), Angola (22%), Chad (21%), and Somalia (20%).
 
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I think it's interesting (in a sad way) to see the patterns that emerge from these findings. Not every poor nation is poor in the same way. People as a whole tend to be malnourished the most in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where the GDP is the lowest. The problem of underweight children tends to be the worst in South Asia, where women have very few rights and are generally viewed as inferior to men. And child mortality seems to be the highest in states with horrendous governance, regardless of their location.
 
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I think it's interesting (in a sad way) to see the patterns that emerge from these findings. Not every poor nation is poor in the same way. People as a whole tend to be malnourished the most in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where the GDP is the lowest. The problem of underweight children tends to be the worst in South Asia, where women have very few rights and are generally viewed as inferior to men. And child mortality seems to be the highest in states with horrendous governance, regardless of their location.

Where did you find this?
 
Where did you find this?

You can view the full report here:
2010 Global Hunger Index : The Challenge of Hunger : Focus on the Crisis of Child Undernutrition

South Asia is actually a much, much worse place for children than sub-Saharan Africa is. IMO, sub-Saharan Africa gets most of the charity attention, but those who have money/time to give should really focus more on India. It has more people than all of sub-Saharan Africa, and its problems are different but no less severe.
 
This is just part of a 2010 report on Hunger in America.

After having read the report from Feed America and being acutely aware of the problems here at home, I must say I am happy for those countries that have improved, but it's clear the last 4 years have not been good here at home.

We are the richest Country in the History of the World and we should have jobs enough to en the slide into 3rd world status and unless we change the current stupid thinking that we can spend what we don't have, on projects that don't work, based on promises I don't believe, that mean nothing we are going see it get a whole lot worse.

Hunger Report 2010

Feeding America is annually providing food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million children. This is an increase of 46 percent over 2006, when we were feeding 25 million Americans, including 9 million children, each year.

That means one in eight Americans now rely on Feeding America for food and groceries.

Feeding America's nationwide network of food banks is feeding 1 million more Americans each week than we did in 2006.

More than one-third of client households report having to choose between food and other basic necessities, such as rent, utilities and medical care.

The number of children the Feeding America network serves has increased by 50 percent since 2006.
 
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