Sri Lanka ranks 64th in Global Hunger Index 2022

Sri Lanka ranks 64th out of the 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index, with sufficient data to calculate 2022 GHI scores. 

With a score of 13.6, Sri Lanka has a level of hunger that is moderate, according to the index. This is a -21.4% change since the year 2000.

Concern Worldwide of Ireland and Welt Hunger Hilfe of Germany publish the World Hunger Index every year.

The list is published annually after analyzing food shortages, undernutrition, child growth, balanced diet, lack of age-appropriate growth of children, and infant mortality.

Meanwhile, India has slipped from 101st to 107th on the Global Hunger Index. India lags behind its neighbours Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka is at 64th position and Nepal at 81st position. Bangladesh is ranked 84th, Pakistan 99th and Afghanistan 109th.

The report says several countries have exceptionally high values for one or more of the indicators used in the calculation of GHI scores, even if their overall scores do not put them in the highest categories of hunger. 

For example, Timor-Leste has the third-highest child stunting rate of any country in the world with data, at 46.7 percent, despite a GHI score in the serious category. India, with a GHI score considered serious, has the world’s highest child wasting rate, at 19.3 percent; rates are also very high in Sudan, Yemen, and Sri Lanka. 

At 47.2 and 41.6 percent, respectively, Haiti and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea each have very high undernourishment rates—the third- and fourth-highest rates of any countries with data. 

Nigeria, with a serious hunger level, has the second-highest child mortality rate, at 11.4 percent, just after that of Somalia, at 11.5 percent. Awareness of which countries struggle the most according to each indicator is urgently required to ensure these problems do not go unheeded.

For the 2022 GHI report, data were assessed for 136 countries. Out of these, there were sufficient data to calculate 2022 GHI scores for and rank 121 countries (by way of comparison, 116 countries were ranked in the 2021 report).

The report highlights that the world is facing a serious setback in efforts to end hunger. Conflict, the climate crisis and the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic – compounded by the war in Ukraine – are turning a crisis into a catastrophe.

“The 2022 Global Hunger Index reflects both the scandal of alarming hunger in too many countries, as well as the changing trajectory in countries where decades of progress in tackling hunger is being eroded.”

“It is critical to act now to rebuild food security on a new and lasting basis by investing in an urgently needed transformation towards equitable, inclusive, and sustainable food systems.”

“This transformation will only succeed if communities, civil society organizations, small producers, farmers, and indigenous groups – with their local knowledge, and lived experiences – can shape how food is governed,” the report added.