Pakistan ranked 99th on the Global Hunger Index

Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country, has been ranked 99th out of 129 nations in a Global Hunger Index (GHI) report which described its level of hunger as “serious”.

The fourth edition of the report, prepared in collaboration between German non-profit Welthungerhilfe and its Irish counterpart Concern Worldwide, is a peer-reviewed publication and was launched in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday.

Highlighting a global food crisis, the report says that a “toxic cocktail of conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic” left millions vulnerable to food shortages.

Alarmingly, according to the report, GHI projections show that at least 46 countries in the world, including Pakistan, will fail to achieve “low hunger” by 2030.

Pakistan achieved a score of 26.1 for the 2022 report, worse than its 29.6 in the last edition of the report in 2014.

The 2007 and 2000 reports showed Pakistan’s GHI score at 32.1 and 36.8 respectively.

The report, published in October last year, showed that Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions with the “highest hunger levels” and remain most vulnerable to future shocks and crises.

“South Asia, the region with the world’s highest hunger level, has the highest child stunting rate and by far the highest child wasting rate of any world region,” it added.