Nigeria has emerged at the 109th position out of 125 countries with serious hunger challenges according to the Global Hunger Index 2023 released at the weekend.
According to the GHI report for 2023, Nigeria is only two places ahead of India, which ranks 111th, and a place ahead of Zambia, which ranks 110th.
Nigeria is below Congo and Zimbabwe, with both countries on the 107th rank.
With a score of 28.3 the 2023 Global Hunger Index, shows hunger level in Nigeria is serious while the Central African Republic, which ranks 125th with a score of 42.5, has an alarming rate of hunger.
The GHI report comes on the heels of the National Bureau of Statistics disclosure that Inflation rate in Nigeria rose to 28.92 percent in December 2023 from 28.20 percent recorded in November indicating a record 20-year high since January 2003.
The NBS had attributed the rise partly to food inflation, which rose to 33.93 percent in December from 32.84 percent in November, constituting 50 percent of the inflation rate.
The Global Hunger Index is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels, reflecting multiple dimensions of hunger over time.
The GHI is intended to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a way to compare levels of hunger between countries and regions, and call attention to those areas of the world where hunger levels are highest and where the need for additional efforts to eliminate hunger is greatest.
Each country’s GHI score is calculated based on a formula that combines four indicators that together capture the multidimensional nature of hunger:
Undernourishment: the share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient.
Child stunting: the share of children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition.
Child wasting: the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition.
Child Mortality: the share of children who die before their fifth birthday, reflecting in part the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.
