In its Global Hunger Index, Welthungerhilfe, which published the report with the United Nations, says the Government has misunderstood the concept of undernutrition.
Welthungerhilfe (WHH), the German non-profit that provided data for the World Hunger Index (WHI) this year, rejected the Government’s claim that India’s ranking as one of 16 worst countries is the result of an opinion poll. Also, it pointed out that the Government had misunderstood the meaning of “undernourishment.”
The Indian Government expressed its shock and questioned its two publishers’ unscientific methodology, Concern Worldwide, and Welthungerhilfe, which relies on a “four-question” opinion poll to calculate one of the four indicators used to arrive at the GHI score.
According to the ‘undernourishment’ indicator, India’s performance deteriorated from 14% to 15.3% from 2017-2019 to 2018-2020.
“FAO’s telephone-based FIES isn’t included in the GHI, even though it is an opinion indicator. The Global Hunger Index measures undernourishment prevalence using data from the food balance sheets of each country, says Miriam Wiemers, advisor to the index.
An overview
A Food Balance Sheet is a comprehensive overview of a country’s food supply over a specified period. For each food item, it identifies the sources of supply and its utilization.
As a result of data revisions and changes in methodology, the GHI rankings of one year cannot be directly comparable to those of previous years.
According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the ‘undernourishment’ indicator should not have relied on a poll but rather weight and height measurement.
“This demonstrates a misunderstanding of the undernutrition indicator. Based on the food supply in a country, undernutrition measures the proportion of the population with inadequate access to calories. According to Ms. Weimers, it does not represent weight or height.
In addition to weight and height, the GHI score considers wasting (low weight for height), stunting (low height for age), and under-five mortality rate, so the argument that the index should have used weight and size is invalid.
Undernutrition is not the same thing as stunting and wasting of children, explains Ms. Weimers.
In addition, the Government erred by claiming that the performance of four neighboring countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka – on the undernourishment indicator had improved.
There was an increase in undernutrition in three out of the four countries, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan increased from 23.4% to 25.6%, Nepal from 4.3% to 4.8%, and Sri Lanka from 6% to 6.8%.
A government rejection of the Global Hunger Index is not the first time. WCD Minister Smriti Irani said recently that the Global Health Index (GHI) was flawed.
Factors interact in complex ways
The first two indicators – stunting and wasting – are the outcomes of multiple factors other than hunger, such as sanitation, genetics, environment, and food intake utilization. There is hardly any evidence that the fourth indicator – child mortality – results from hunger.
Ever since the WHH raised its concerns earlier this year, it has contacted Indian officials.
The Indian Government has previously been in contact with us, explaining our methodology and indicator data. The GHI Advisor said the WCD once knew of the sources of the four indicators for this year’s report.
According to Ms. Weimers, “the GHI uses indicators that are part of the internationally recognized indicator set to measure progress on the SDGs. The GHI is peer-reviewed by external specialists.” Various methods have evolved.
The prevalence of undernourishment serves as an indicator for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2.1, which aims to guarantee access to adequate, healthy, and safe food for all.
SDG 2.2, on ending all forms of malnutrition, also demands reducing stunting and wasting by 2025. Ms. Wiemers explained the rationale behind using the four indicators as reducing preventable deaths of children under five years of age as SDG 3.2.Â
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