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Map of GHI countries. Concern Ireland

Global Hunger Index falls 34 per cent since 1990

Nineteen countries have been identified as suffering from alarming levels of hunger.

NINETEEN COUNTRIES HAVE been identified as suffering from levels of hunger that are either “alarming” or “extremely alarming”.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) for this year by Concern identifies and visually maps hunger levels and hot spots across 120 developing countries and ‘scores’ their hunger status.

Falling

This year’s index indicates that global hunger is decreasing, with the GHI score falling by 34 percent from the 1990 GHI score.

South Asia has the highest regional GHI score, followed by Africa south of the Sahara. For individual countries, Burundi, Eritrea and Comoros have the highest levels of hunger.

Here is a map of the world, indicating countries that have the highest levels of hunger. The countries in yellow have serious levels of hunger, while the light orange countries have “alarming levels” of hunger. The countries in red have “extremely alarming” levels of hunger. (If you can’t view this image click here).

image

(Image via Concern GHI report)

Concern state that most countries where the hunger situation is already “alarming” or “extremely alarming” are countries that are vulnerable to the negative effects of extreme weather events, climate change, population pressure, conflicts and economic crises.

At risk countries

They said that traditional coping mechanisms in these countries as well as the capacity of governments are in many cases hugely challenged.

The CEO of Concern Worldwide, Dominic MacSorley, has today called for a more holistic model of aid and long-term development. He said it should be “based on building the resilience of communities vulnerable to natural disasters and global economic shocks”.

He added:

Fire-fighting with emergency aid is not enough. Aid agencies, governments and international organisations need to learn lessons from the past and boost future protection measures to reduce the impact of extreme weather events and other hazards on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

We can’t predict every possible terrible event, but we need to break the endless cycle of disaster-respond, disaster-respond where we can.

Read: Government announces aid funding for women and children>

Read: Minister encourages retired public servants ‘twiddling their thumbs’ to volunteer abroad>

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34 Comments
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    Mute Dane Tyghe
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:09 PM

    Would be handy to be able to see the whole map.

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    Mute Paul Nolan
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:12 PM

    why its all just white, u can google an atlas if u like.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:55 PM

    @dane, theres a larger map in the linked pdf, in case your on mobile, heres a screen grab http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2013/10/world-2.png

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    Mute Jack Bowden
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    Oct 14th 2013, 7:51 PM

    I wanna see North Korea on the map.

    2
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    Mute Jazz O'Gorman
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:47 PM

    If all the African Warlords and Dictators relinquished their wealth, there’d be no poverty in Africa.

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    Mute Susie
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:51 PM

    Yes there would. It’s not just as simple as that.

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:30 PM

    Has anyone tried praying?

    24
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    Mute Michelle Mc Loughney
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:31 PM

    Little Jim.

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:58 PM

    They have been praying for the poor of Africa a long time now… as well as giving aid… seems it is all working a little bit.

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    Oct 14th 2013, 5:33 PM

    I completely agree that it’s working, the aid that is not the wishful thinking. Unless by working you mean making people feel better about themselves without actually doing anything.

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    Mute Morticia
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:21 PM

    China owns most of the minerals in Africa, not the west.

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    Mute Michelle Mc Loughney
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:13 PM

    Breaker! Breaker! World hunger decreasing. Death from starvation, possible cause.

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    Mute Paul Nolan
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:19 PM

    Well the population is actually bigger and there are less people starving. But u keep being ur negative it’s what u enjoy.

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    Mute Paul Nolan
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:20 PM

    Self*

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    Mute Sean Mckevitt
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:34 PM

    This is a.hard read ,
    and it proves everything that is wrong with this world ,on the list of countries Eritrea, nigeria, liberal , serrie leone angola , plus others are mega rich in naturl resources ………….of which nearly all are in the hands of western corporations .
    SICKENING.

    7
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    Mute al shamen
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:45 PM

    Yes it’s all the Wests fault.Nothing to do with embedded corruption,tribal and religious based politics and skyrocketing birthrates.

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    Mute Sean Mckevitt
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:18 PM

    Al , yoir missing the point ,
    most of the corrupt governments are embedded by of backed by westerners with vested interests……..where do you think they get the billions for weapons and rich politicans whilst their peoples starve.
    Look at liberal , 90% of the worlds rubber comes from there with perilli and the like in place , yet liberals unemployment rate is 85%.
    Is it any wonder there is mass civil unrest.

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    Mute al shamen
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:25 PM

    Where the hell is liberal and what in God’s name is perilli?

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    Mute Sean Mckevitt
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:01 PM

    Should say liberia and pirelli tyres
    Bad case of fat fingers.com

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    Mute al shamen
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:21 PM

    Fair enough.But it’s a bit more complicated than saying it’s the Wests fault and Pirelli can hardly be blamed for the unemployment rate in Liberia.It’s up to Africans to help themselves.

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    Mute Michelle Mc Loughney
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:29 PM

    I was eluding to the fact that no reason stated for the drop in stats, Paul.

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    Mute Dane Tyghe
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:50 PM

    maybe you were “eluding” (as you spell it) to some stats but that doesn’t take from the fact that in all my time on the journal Michelle i can only remember you commenting in a negative way. You must thrive on it for some reason.

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    Mute Michelle Mc Loughney
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:45 PM

    oh right ‘alluding’ Dane. Thanks for correcting my spellcheck. Your own punctuation could use some work. For someone not to use a capital letter, or a comma in a post, and then correct my spelling is hilarious. As for my apparent negativity, my opinions are my own, I don’t need to repeat the comment of the commentator ahead of me, unlike you. Also, I couldn’t give a toss for your opinion. I have never seen or noticed an opinion from you ever on the journal, keep up the stellar work.

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    Mute Kitty Con Carne Burnell
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:12 PM

    I would have liked to see a 1990 map to compare.

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    Mute Morticia
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:46 PM

    Africa may spring a pleasant surprise. Over the past four decades agricultural yields in Africa hardly budged while they doubled or quadrupled in most of Asia. That is almost entirely down to a dearth of fertiliser and it is beginning to change.
    It may upset some lefties to read that most African countries are now granting land to White farmers who were driven out of Rhodesia and South Africa to boost output and to train indigenous farmers. Africans only use 8 kg/ha of fertiliser while the world average is 93 kg. Far too many NGO’s have stood in the way of giving free fertiliser to African farmers as they push their ‘organic’ beliefs.

    I see great hope for Africa if their home grown despots can be sidetracked.

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    Mute Michelle Rogers
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    Oct 14th 2013, 8:23 PM

    From what I have read, Africa is on track for huge increases in drought, famine, disease etc. So I would not like to be living in Africa… they are suffering from our emissions of fossil fuels. Mary Robinson’s Foundation on Climate Justice has lots of interesting research and evidence on this too.

    Climate change will devastate Africa, top UK scientist warns
    Professor Sir Gordon Conway warns continent will face intense droughts, famine, disease and floods
    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/oct/28/africa-climate-change-sir-gordon-conway

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    Mute denisj
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    Oct 14th 2013, 8:51 PM

    Morticia – I love how your posts on here are just so wildly unpredictable. I have no idea where you lie on the political spectrum. Anyway, in this case I think you’re over simplifying. Africa is a huge continent with massively different challenges. Similarly the NGO response in Africa includes everything from nutjob Christian and Muslim charities to hard line secular ultra-capitalists. I don’t disbelieve what you’re saying about fertiliser, but realistically it can only be a drop in the ocean. Most of Africa is simply at a geographical disadvantage because it’s got nastier diseases and harsher climates than the rest of the world. Factor in some political instability, a fair helping of corruption – though this isn’t the fix all that many of us would like to think – and you’ve got a very difficult place for anyone to increase agricultural yields. If you’re looking to over simplify though, the better shot would be infrastructure. Africa is shorter on usable roads, railway lines, airports and even trucks then the rest of the world. Most of its ports are not connected to the interior in any useful way.
    The only lefties it should upset to hear that white farmers are being encouraged to train people are the ones who can’t see that most white Africans got a better education and more technical experience during colonialism/apartheid.

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    Mute Morticia
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    Oct 15th 2013, 11:23 AM

    @denisj,goodness I was trying trying to say that solving the problems in Africa would be easy, just that the problem is not entirely hopeless. infrastructure is a priority as is the provision of cheap power and water and this is where Thorium reactors will come into their own[China is well down the road to producing reactors]. The main driver of African revival seems to be China at the moment as the West is tying itself in knots but improvement has started. The ecoloons are forecasting doom and gloom but on the ground the picture is different as the Sahara started to retreat from c1982 onwards.
    I could go on about the use and improvement of some of the 2000 native food plants available in Africa as is underway but will save that for another day.
    My politics ? Definitely not a leftie, more a realist aligned to no particular party or creed after all a spade is a spade.

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    Mute Morticia
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    Oct 15th 2013, 11:24 AM

    Not Easy !!

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    Mute Michelle Mc Loughney
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:25 PM

    *self?

    3
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    Mute Ping Pong
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    Oct 14th 2013, 2:53 PM

    [Face palm]

    12
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    Mute Michelle Mc Loughney
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:52 PM

    (middle finger)

    5
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    Mute Morticia
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:20 PM

    “Environmental groups that oppose GM crops being used in Africa and Asia are ‘wicked’ and could potentially condemn millions of children to an early death, Owen Paterson has warned.

    Environment Secretary UK.

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    Mute Michelle Rogers
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    Oct 14th 2013, 8:25 PM

    A rebuttal from somebody who actually knows something about the subject, unlike Owen Paterson:

    http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jun/24/gm-crops-african-farmers

    2
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