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Famine, hunger, malnutrition, etc. are often used interchangeably which should not be the case. According to international institutions dealing with food security such as the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), hunger is usually understood to refer to the distress associated with lack of food. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) defines food deprivation, or undernourishment, as the consumption of fewer than about 1,800 kilocalories a day-the minimum that most people require to live a healthy and productive life. Undernutrition goes beyond calories and signifies deficiencies in any or all of the following: energy, protein, or essential vitamins and minerals. Undernutrition is the result of inadequate intake of food in terms of either quantity or quality, poor utilisation of nutrients due to infections or other illnesses, or a combination of these factors. These, in turn, are caused by a range of factors including household food insecurity; inadequate maternal health or childcare practices; and inadequate access to health services, safe water and sanitation.
Malnutrition refers more broadly to both undernutrition (problems of deficiencies) and overnutrition (problems of unbalanced diets which include consuming too many calories in relation to energy requirements, with or without low intake of micronutrient-rich foods).
Bangladesh is reported to have stepped up one point in 2014 Global Hunger Index (GHI), showing a significant improvement in hunger levels along with nine other countries. The country has ranked 57, according to the GHI by the IFPRI. In 2013 GHI, Bangladesh ranked 58. "Angola, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chad, Ghana, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Thailand, and Vietnam have seen the greatest improvements in their scores between the 1990 GHI and the 2014 GHI," said the 2014 GHI.
The South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), led by Dr Selim Raihan, attempted to determine the drives of hunger. In order to understand the factors impacting global hunger, Selim Raihan and others have estimated cross-country panel regressions for 117 countries using data for the years of 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010.
The IFPRI's GHI is used as the dependent variable by the researchers. The GHI is based on three components of equal weights: (a) per cent of undernourished in the population, (b) per cent of underweight in children under age ?ve, and (c) under-?ve mortality rate. The index varies between a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 100. The maximum value of 100 would mean that all children died before their ?fth birthday, the whole population was undernourished, and all children under- ?ve were underweight. The minimum value of zero would mean that a country had no undernourished people in the population, no children under ?ve was underweight, and no children died before their ?fth birthday. In reality, however, the GHI ranges between 0 to 1 - the higher the value, more is hunger and vice versa. The GHI data show that in 1990, the worst performer was Angola with hunger index of 40.8, and in 2010, the worst performer was Burundi with hunger index of 35.6.
In the panel regression that the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) used, to focus on the hunger status of the least developed countries (LDCs) and developing countries, the researchers have excluded all developed countries from analysis. For the explanatory variables, they have used initial real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, level of real GDP per capita, food production index, three indicators related to expenditure on health, per cent of population with access to improved sanitation facilities, per cent of children immunised with measles vaccine, per cent of children immunised with DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) vaccine, trade-GDP ratio, share of agriculture in GDP to capture country's dependence on agriculture, and the LDC dummy. The regression results show that initial GDP per capita has a negative coe?cient though not statistically signi?cant. However, the level of real GDP per capita has a negative impact on hunger; and 1 percent rise in real GDP per capita would lead to 2.3 unit reduction in the hunger index. Food production index has a negative impact on hunger; and 1 unit increase in the food production index would reduce hunger index by 0.1 unit.
Improved sanitation has a negative impact on hunger; and a percentage point increase in the ratio of improved sanitation facilities would reduce hunger index by 0.1 unit. Trade openness does not appear to have any signi?cant impact. Reduced dependence on agriculture is negatively associated with hunger and a percentage point decline in the share of agriculture in GDP would reduce hunger index by 0.04 unit. Immunisations of DPT and measles are signi?cantly related with hunger, and one percentage point increase in the coverage of vaccination of DPT and measles would reduce hunger by 0.02 and 0.01 units respectively. The LDC dummy shows that being an LDC would increase the hunger index by 10 units.
The above analysis leads to some important policy concerns and necessity to rethink what a?ects hunger. First, economic growth is a necessary condition for the reduction in hunger. However, rise in food production, improved access to sanitation facilities, rise in expenditure on health, immunisation, reduction in dependence on agriculture, reduction in external con?ict and government stability are very important in reducing hunger. The policies targeting the reduction in hunger need to take into account these issues. By and large, the state of hunger hinges on a number of variables.
As mentioned earlier, the improvement in hunger situation in Bangladesh could be related to these factors. For example, a satisfactory rate of economic growth averaging 6.5 per cent over a decade, the increased proportion of households accessing sanitation, a rise in expenditure on health and more importantly, political stability could be accounted for the improvement.
The writer is a Professor
of Economics at
Jahangirnagar University. [email protected]