Hunger haunts 33 countries

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Manila Standard
15 October 2008 | 11:00 PM

A group has listed the Philippines as one of 33 countries with a serious hunger problem along with Myanmar, Timor Leste, Vietnam and Indonesia, but most of which are in the African continent.

The global hunger index in the Philippines is at 14.0 this year, which means the problem is serious or with an index of 10 to 19, the International Food Policy Research Institute says in its 2008 Global Hunger Index report.

The index runs from zero to 100, and the higher it is, the higher the hunger problem.



The institute says the hunger problem is alarming or very alarming in Africa.

The group calculated the hunger index based on the proportion of undernourished people as a percentage of the population, the prevalence of underweight children under the age of five, and the mortality rate of children under five.

About 18 percent of the population was considered undernourished in the Philippines in 2002 to 2004, 20.7 percent of children were underweight in 2001 to 2006, and the mortality rate of children under five years was 3.2 percent in 2006, the group says.

It says that since the most recent data used were for 2006, the hunger index offers a picture of the past, not the present.

“This global hunger index report therefore does not reflect recent increases in food and energy prices,” the group says.

A third of all the countries surveyed, including the Philippines, suffered violent or non-violent protest from January 2007 to June 2008 as a result of food price surges, the group says.

The food protests in the Philippines were non-violent, but not those that happened in Bangladesh, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Haiti, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Senegal and South Africa.

The group says 969 million people in the world live on less than $1 a day and 17 percent of those live on less than $0.50 a day. The world has made slow progress in reducing food insecurity since 1990, with dramatic differences among regions and countries, it says.

The report was released at a time of dramatic changes in world food markets, with high food prices threatening the food security of millions of vulnerable households.

This is the third year that the International Food Policy Research Institute has calculated the multi-dimensional measure of global hunger.

The group says combating the food crisis will require more food aid for poor people; much greater investment in agriculture, especially the small farm sector; and more investment in social protection programs and social sectors like education and health.

The group is also pushing reforms to create a fair world trading system; changes to bio-fuel policies; measures to calm global food markets; better data collection and improved monitoring of the food and nutrition situation; and more support for non-governmental organizations that work on behalf of poor people in developing countries. -- Roderick T. dela Cruz