4.15 MB - Food Security Clusters

The hunger indexThe hunger index pioneered by theInternational Food Policy ResearchInstitute combines the three aspects ofhunger mentioned above -undernourishment,underweight and mortality- into a single index(See Box 4.1). With an index of 29.3 SouthSudan is among the bottom five of the 122countries for which the hunger index wascalculated by IFPRI in 2010 4 . The hungersituation in most states (Figure 1.4) is -or isclose to- ‘extremely alarming’ with Unityscoring the worst (42.5). Even in the Equatoriastates, which fare relatively better, the hungersituation is still categorized as serious oralarming. 5Undernourishment is the main driving forcefor hunger in South Sudan. However inNorthern Bahr El Ghazal, Jonglei and Unityunderweight and mortality play a great role indefining hunger.Figure 1.4 – The Hunger Index by stateSouth Sudan: How a new country can feed its peopleBox 4.1 – Global Hunger IndexThe Global Hunger Index (GHI) is designed to comprehensivelymeasure and track hunger globally and by country and region. Itis calculated each year by the International Food Policy ResearchInstitute (IFPRI).To reflect the multidimensional nature of hunger, the GHIcombines three equally weighted indicators in one indexnumber:1. Undernourishment: the proportion of undernourished as apercentage of the population (reflecting the share of thepopulation with insufficient calorie intake);2. Child underweight: the proportion of children younger than theage of five who are underweight (low weight for age reflectingwasting, stunted growth, or both), which is one indicator ofchild undernutrition; and3. Child mortality: the mortality rate of children younger than theage of five (partially reflecting the fatal synergy of inadequatedietary intake and unhealthy environments).The GHI ranks countries on a 100-point scale. Zero is the bestscore (no hunger), and 100 is the worst, although neither ofthese extremes is reached in practice.Excerpt from www.ifpri.org (Global Hunger Index webpage)4The five countries include: South Sudan (29.3), (30.5),Chad (30.9), Eritrea (35.7), Burundi (38.3) and DR Congo(41).9