Our positive GHI ranking

BANGLADESH'S Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranking with 57 score points is a notch better  this year compared to what it was in 2013, says a study report of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

This is no mean achievement for us seeing that it has to feed a far bigger population than nine other African and Southeast Asian nations which have ranked identically with Bangladesh.

The GHI ranking has been done on the basis of three criteria, namely, the proportion of undernourished population, proportion of below-five-year children who are underweight and mortality rate of under-five children.  It is important to note here that these criteria point to what is known as 'hidden hunger' manifested through lower calorie intake leading to compromised immunity, stunted physical and mental growth of the population. In particular, the higher under-five mortality rate is reflective of a situation where malnutrition coupled unhygienic living condition put children in a life-threatening situation.

The study has further shown that over the past quarter of a century between 1990 and 2014, excepting 16 countries where the level of hunger ranges from alarming to extremely alarming, in most other developing countries including Bangladesh, the number of people going hungry has dropped by 39 per cent. In Bangladesh's case, efforts by the government as well as an active NGO sector to fight child malnutrition coupled with a strong public sector monitoring of the work has helped bring down the percentage of underweight children from 62 per in 1990 to cent to 37 per cent in 2011.  We still have a long way to go.