Three decades of fighting against hunger in Africa: Progress, challenges and opportunities
Tackling hunger is a challenge for many African governments because of its endemic nature on the continent. Many African countries have found it difficult to achieve significant reductions in hunger and malnutrition since 1990. In this paper, we review the progress of African countries in the fight...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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World Public Health Nutrition Association
2020-09-01
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| Series: | World Nutrition |
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| Online Access: | https://worldnutritionjournal.org/index.php/wn/article/view/729 |
| _version_ | 1811333210038075392 |
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| author | Olutosin Ademola Otekunrin Oluwaseun Aramide Otekunrin Barbara Sawicka Idris A Ayinde |
| author_facet | Olutosin Ademola Otekunrin Oluwaseun Aramide Otekunrin Barbara Sawicka Idris A Ayinde |
| author_sort | Olutosin Ademola Otekunrin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Tackling hunger is a challenge for many African governments because of its endemic nature on the continent. Many African countries have found it difficult to achieve significant reductions in hunger and malnutrition since 1990. In this paper, we review the progress of African countries in the fight against hunger over the past three decades, using the Global Hunger Index (GHI) scores. Ghana had the best GHI improvement (-53.1%) while Zimbabwe and Central African Republic had slightly increased GHI scores (+1.6%). Within this time period, few countries had significant reductions in their GHI scores, while some suffered increases. Furthermore, in assessing the three indicators of GHI: (i) prevalence of undernourishment (percent population), (ii) prevalence of stunting in children (%) and (iii) prevalence of wasting in children (%), we found that no country in Africa was able to achieve all three targets. Six countries (Tunisia, Ghana, South Africa, Morocco, Mauritius and Algeria) were able to achieve targets for two of these while the majority achieved only one. We present country-level evidence of clear links between GHI scores with score for human development, social protection and terrorism. Some challenges that made the zero hunger target a difficult task in Africa are reviewed while opportunities for moving the continent towards the zero-hunger target by 2030 are also explored.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T16:49:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b7439f7b0422482aaada0c178724c12e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-9775 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T16:49:37Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | World Public Health Nutrition Association |
| record_format | Article |
| series | World Nutrition |
| spelling | doaj.art-b7439f7b0422482aaada0c178724c12e2022-12-22T02:38:59ZengWorld Public Health Nutrition AssociationWorld Nutrition2041-97752020-09-0111310.26596/wn.202011386-111Three decades of fighting against hunger in Africa: Progress, challenges and opportunitiesOlutosin Ademola Otekunrin0Oluwaseun Aramide Otekunrin1Barbara Sawicka2Idris A Ayinde3Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB)University of Ibadan, Ibadan, NigeriaUniversity of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, PolandDepartment of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria Tackling hunger is a challenge for many African governments because of its endemic nature on the continent. Many African countries have found it difficult to achieve significant reductions in hunger and malnutrition since 1990. In this paper, we review the progress of African countries in the fight against hunger over the past three decades, using the Global Hunger Index (GHI) scores. Ghana had the best GHI improvement (-53.1%) while Zimbabwe and Central African Republic had slightly increased GHI scores (+1.6%). Within this time period, few countries had significant reductions in their GHI scores, while some suffered increases. Furthermore, in assessing the three indicators of GHI: (i) prevalence of undernourishment (percent population), (ii) prevalence of stunting in children (%) and (iii) prevalence of wasting in children (%), we found that no country in Africa was able to achieve all three targets. Six countries (Tunisia, Ghana, South Africa, Morocco, Mauritius and Algeria) were able to achieve targets for two of these while the majority achieved only one. We present country-level evidence of clear links between GHI scores with score for human development, social protection and terrorism. Some challenges that made the zero hunger target a difficult task in Africa are reviewed while opportunities for moving the continent towards the zero-hunger target by 2030 are also explored. https://worldnutritionjournal.org/index.php/wn/article/view/729Zero HungerFood SecurityGlobal Hunger IndexMalnutritionAfricaConflict Events |
| spellingShingle | Olutosin Ademola Otekunrin Oluwaseun Aramide Otekunrin Barbara Sawicka Idris A Ayinde Three decades of fighting against hunger in Africa: Progress, challenges and opportunities World Nutrition Zero Hunger Food Security Global Hunger Index Malnutrition Africa Conflict Events |
| title | Three decades of fighting against hunger in Africa: Progress, challenges and opportunities |
| title_full | Three decades of fighting against hunger in Africa: Progress, challenges and opportunities |
| title_fullStr | Three decades of fighting against hunger in Africa: Progress, challenges and opportunities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Three decades of fighting against hunger in Africa: Progress, challenges and opportunities |
| title_short | Three decades of fighting against hunger in Africa: Progress, challenges and opportunities |
| title_sort | three decades of fighting against hunger in africa progress challenges and opportunities |
| topic | Zero Hunger Food Security Global Hunger Index Malnutrition Africa Conflict Events |
| url | https://worldnutritionjournal.org/index.php/wn/article/view/729 |
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