SL better in hunger index ranking

With a score of 25.5, Sri Lanka has been ranked 84th among 119 countries in the 2017 Global Hunger Index (GHI) under the ‘serious’ category.

The index which was compiled by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was released on Wednesday.

India is ranked 100th, Pakistan 106th and Bangladesh 88th while Nepal is ranked 72nd and Afghanistan ranked 107th.

The index was compiled based on the four indicators — Undernourishment, Child wasting, Child stunting and Child mortality.

Child wasting has been described as the share of children under the age of five who are wasted; that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute under-nutrition.

“Apart from India, only three other countries — Sri Lanka, Djibouti and South Sudan have data or estimates showing child wasting of more than 20 per cent during the period under review. Wasting is most prevalent in Sri Lanka, Djibouti and South Sudan where 21.4 to 27.3 per cent of children under five years of age are affected,” it said.

Fourteen countries including Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Kuwait and Turkey made to the top of the list collectively with an score less than five each.

Central African Republic scored the highest marks and ranked at the bottom of the index followed by Chad, Sierra Leone, Madagascar and Zambia respectively.

The index report said GHI scores are not calculated for some high-income countries where the prevalence of hunger is very low.