Global Hunger Index

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a peer-reviewed annual report jointly published by the Irish humanitarian agency Concern Worldwide and the German non-governmental organisation Welthungerhilfe. First released in 2006 by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the GHI seeks to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional and national levels, and to draw attention to the regions of the world where hunger levels are highest. It draws its underlying data from established international bodies — the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation — and aligns conceptually with the Sustainable Development Goal of "Zero Hunger" (SDG 2), to be achieved by 2030.

The GHI score is calculated from four component indicators that together capture both calorie deficiency and child nutrition outcomes: undernourishment (the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake); child stunting (children under five with low height-for-age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); child wasting (children under five with low weight-for-height, reflecting acute undernutrition); and child mortality (the death rate of children under five, partly reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments). Each indicator is standardised and the values are aggregated into a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best (no hunger) and 100 the worst. Scores are then mapped to a severity scale: low (≤9.9), moderate (10.0–19.9), serious (20.0–34.9), alarming (35.0–49.9) and extremely alarming (≥50.0).

India's ranking has been a recurring point of political controversy. In the 2023 report India was placed 111th of 125 countries with a score categorised as "serious," and the Government of India's Ministry of Women and Child Development publicly disputed the methodology, particularly objecting to the use of child wasting (capturing transient acute conditions) and to the small Gallup poll sample used for the proportion-of-undernourished estimate. The publishers have defended their methodology while acknowledging data limitations. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia consistently record the highest hunger levels, and the reports have repeatedly warned that conflict, climate change, and economic shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have stalled or reversed progress toward SDG 2.

For competitive examinations, the GHI is squarely a current-affairs and international-organisations topic tested in the prelims (general studies) and in mains essay and GS papers dealing with poverty, food security and human development indices. The most common question angles are: identifying the publishing agencies (Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, with IFPRI's historical role); listing the four indicators correctly; recalling India's most recent rank and category; and contrasting the GHI with allied indices such as the Global Food Security Index, the FAO's State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, and India's domestic schemes — the National Food Security Act 2013, POSHAN Abhiyaan, and the public distribution system. Candidates should also be prepared to critically evaluate the index, noting both the government's methodological objections and the broader debate over reliance on survey-based estimates, since UPSC and CSS frequently reward balanced analytical treatment over rote recall.