The Challenge of Hunger Global Hunger Index: Facts, determinants, and trends The Challenge of Hunger Global Hunger Index: Facts, determinants, and trends Case studies in the post-confl ict countries of Afghanistan and Sierra Leone Bonn, October 2006 Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (DWHH) Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 1 D-53173 Bonn Tel. +49 (0) 228-2288-0 Fax +49 (0) 228-2288-333 www.welthungerhilfe.de Secretary General: Dr. Hans-Joachim Preuß International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 2033 K Street, NW Washington, DC 20006-1002, USA Tel. 001 202-862-5600 Fax 001 202-467-4439 www.ifpri.org Director General: Prof. Joachim von Braun Editor: Dr. Iris Schöninger Authors: Dr. Doris Wiesmann (Page 9-24, 48-59), Dr. Lioba Weingärtner and Dr. Iris Schöninger (Page 27-47) Field Research: Dr. Iris Schöninger (Afghanistan), Verena Schwarte (Sierra Leone) Layout: querformat editorial design, Hamburg mail@querformat-design.com Printing: Druckerei Plump Rolandsecker Weg 33, D-53619 Rheinbreitbach Translation: David Fermer Ordering number: 460-9329 Cover photography: Graphics DWHH/ IFPRI Bonn, October 2006 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PUBLISHED BY GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PREFACE It’s a bitter reality that in a world that is growing closer all the time, hunger, undernutrition, and ab- ject poverty are still rife. The poorest of the poor lack a suffi ciently infl uential voice to make their funda- mental concerns be heard. It’s therefore essential that knowledge, political will, and action be brought to- gether in the fi ght against hunger. The collaboration between Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and the Interna- tional Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) con- tributes to this endeavour. While there has been progress in the fi ght against hun- ger in a number of regions in the world, pledges made to eradicate hunger are being repeatedly broken. The target of halving the proportion of hungry people in the world as agreed by 189 heads of state in the 2000 Millennium Goals will not be met: it’s estimated that if trends continue at the current pace, there will still be around 610 million people suffering from hunger by the year 2015 – that is, 32 million more than set as a target by the heads of state. The considerably more ambitious goal set at the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome – to reduce the number of hungry to 412 mil- lion people – can be seen as more desirable but the world is not on track to achieve it. In addition to the World Food Summit Declaration in 1996 and the Millennium Development Goals of 2000, the 187 member states of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) also agreed to imple- ment a “Right to Food” declaration on the basis of vol- untary guidelines two years ago. These three declara- tions provide civil society organisations – in the North as well as the South – with important starting points from which they can assess the actions of governments and call for the fulfi lment of their commitments. Without public pressure, however, the drastic situ- ation of the hungry and undernourished will not im- prove. Deutsche Welthungerhilfe, working in collabo- ration with other nongovernmental organisations in the North as well as the South, has been a committed ad- vocate for the hungry and poor for many decades. The fi ght against hunger and poverty requires advocacy as well as lobbying efforts and public and private funding to support relief projects. Reputable advocacy work must be founded on facts and sound scientifi c evidence. The Global Hunger Index developed by IFPRI and presented to the public in this report fi lls a gap. The index can provide a dif- ferentiated picture of the causes and manifestations of hunger in most developing countries and countries in transition. This index helps to monitor both the successes and failures in the fi ght against hunger. Conclusions drawn from information in the index can pave the way for effective political action and well- designed strategies for eradicating hunger. We hope that the new Global Hunger Index will be- come an effective tool in the fi ght against hunger and poverty! Preface by Prof. Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (left), and Dr. Hans-Joachim Preuß, secretary general of Deutsche Welthungerhilfe Contents GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ CONTENTS Preface Part I 1 A new index to help mobilize against hunger 1.1 The Global Hunger Index as an instrument for monitoring and advocacy 1.2 The concept of the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 1.3 Overview: Wars and AIDS exacerbate hunger – Africa feels the effects 2. Global developments in hunger 2.1 Comparison of the countries ranked highest and lowest in the Index 2.2 Major regional differences 2.3 Africa: A continent of stark contrast 2.4 Asia: Concern over North Korea 2.5 The Near East and North Africa: Poor scores for Yemen 2.6 Latin America: Slow progress 2.7 The East: Central Asia and the Caucasus face diffi culties 2.8 GHI components show strong regional differences 3. The causes of hunger are diverse 3.1 Economic performance is not always the decisive factor 3.2 The spread of HIV and AIDS has negative consequences 3.3 War and armed confl ict cause hunger 9 9 10 10 13 13 14 15 16 16 16 17 17 19 19 22 23 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ CONTENTS Part II 4. After the war: People in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone make a fresh start 5. Afghanistan between war and peace 5.1 Reconstruction is overshadowed by confl icts 5.2 Each day is a struggle against hunger and poverty 5.3 Reconstruction and self-organisation are the main issue 5.4 Growing poppies is the main source of income 5.5 New perspectives: Training and organisation are the fi rst steps 5.6 New perspectives: Roses instead of opium 6. Sierra Leone is gradually stabilising 6.1 Food security takes precedence 6.2 Living from hand to mouth day by day 6.3 The new government is working closely with the international community 6.4 A wealth of resources brings new problems 6.5 New perspectives: Rebuilding infrastructure and agriculture is the fi rst step Appendix A The concept of the Global Hunger Index (GHI) B Information content and potential for advocacy C Calculation of the Global Hunger Index D GHI country trends by subregion E Data underlying the calculation of the GHI F Bibliography for the GHI 26 28 28 29 31 32 34 37 39 39 41 43 43 44 48 50 50 52 56 58 Many people around the world literally live from hand to mouth. GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 9 1.1 | The Global Hunger Index as an instrument for monitoring and advocacy Reputable advocacy work must be based on facts and solid scientifi c evidence. However, even the timely measurement of partial aspects of hunger – such as inadequate dietary energy intake – faces data and methodological challenges. It is safe to say that in- ternational advocacy efforts would benefi t from the availability of a comprehensive measure of hunger. Various international indices were developed to measure other complex phenomena, including the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. The U.S.-based Bread for the World tried to establish a “Hunger Index” in its 2001 annual report, but did not follow up on the idea in subsequent editions. An appropriate hunger index must be scientifi cally sound and must be made avail- able for as many developing countries and countries in transition as possible. The underlying data should be released annually, so that updated rankings com- paring countries and regions can be presented each year. This is the goal of the Global Hunger Index. Because hunger has many faces, it is not suffi cient for the index to only capture food availability. The direct consequences of hunger, such as shortfalls in nutri- tional status and reduced chances of survival, also need to be taken into account. Ideally, vitamin and mineral defi ciencies should be considered as well, but the availability of recent data on an international scale is insuffi cient to include these indicators. There- fore, the GHI focuses on three essential dimensions of hunger that refl ect vitamin and mineral defi cien- cies to some extent: insuffi cient dietary energy availa- bility, shortfalls in nutritional status, and premature mortality. 1. | A new index to help mobilize against hunger by Doris Wiesmann GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I Ph ot o : S ilk e W er ne t 10 1.2 | The Concept of the Global Hunger Index (GHI) The Global Hunger Index is based on three equally weighted indicators: • the proportion of undernourished as a percentage of the population (refl ecting the share of the population with insuffi cient dietary energy in- take); • the prevalence of underweight in children under the age of fi ve (indicating the proportion of children suffering from weight loss and/or re- duced growth); • the under-fi ve mortality rate (partially refl ecting the fatal synergy between inadequate dietary in- take and unhealthy environments). Combining the proportion of undernourished in the population with the two indicators relating to children under fi ve ensures that both the food-sup- ply situation of the population as a whole and the effects of inadequate nutrition on a physiologically very vulnerable group are captured. Children’s nutritional status deserves particular at- tention because a lack of nutrients places them at high risk of physical and mental impairment and death. For many children in developing countries who die from infectious diseases, the indirect cause of death is a weakened immune system due to a lack of dietary energy, vitamins and minerals. Since the fi rst two indicators – the proportion of undernour- ished and the prevalence of underweight in children – do not reveal premature death as the most tragic consequence of hunger, the under-fi ve mortality rate is also included. The Global Hunger Index has the advantage of going beyond dietary energy availability, which is the focus of FAO’s measure of undernourishment1. The GHI’s broader conceptual basis better refl ects the multidi- mensional causes and manifestations of hunger. In- equitable resource allocations between households and also within households are taken into consid- eration since the latter affect the physical well-being of children. Suffi cient food availability at the house- hold level does not guarantee that all members bene- fi t from it in equal measure. All three index components are expressed as per- centages, and the results of a principal compo- nents analysis suggest equal weighting. The GHI varies between the best possible score of 0 and the worst possible score of 100.2 Higher scores indicate greater hunger – the lower the score, the better the country’s situation. GHI scores above 10 are considered seri- ous, scores greater than 20 are alarming and scores exceeding 30 are extremely alarming. For this report, the Global Hunger Index was calculat- ed for the years 1981, 1992, 1997, and 2003. The year 2003 refl ects the most up-to-date index scores, since more recent data have not yet become available. Due to the extremely time-consuming nature of gathering and processing data in developing countries, the pub- lication of the data lags behind by two to three years on average. For example, FAO’s 2005 fi gures on the proportion of undernourished worldwide are based on data from 2000 to 2002. The calculation of GHI scores is restricted to 97 devel- oping countries and 22 countries in transition where measuring hunger is considered most relevant. A few Eastern European countries and Western developed nations are not taken into consideration3 because hunger has been largely overcome in these countries, and overnutrition is a greater problem than a lack of food. 1.3 | Overview: Wars and AIDS exacerbate hunger – Africa feels the effects A comparison of countries shows that Belarus has the lowest (best) GHI score, followed by Argentina and other Latin American and Eastern European countries that have high levels of economic and so- GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 11 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I cial development. Burundi, Eritrea, and other Sub- Saharan African countries have the highest (worst) scores, mainly due to poverty and armed confl ict. The hot spots of hunger and undernutrition are in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Positive trends prevail in South and Southeast Asia, where, as op- posed to Africa, the Green Revolution boosted food supplies and acted as an engine for economic growth. Investments in the social sector and infrastructure reinforced this positive development. The trends are mixed for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: whereas a few countries were successful in reducing hunger, civil wars and bad governance pro- duced detrimental outcomes in many other coun- tries. Moreover, warfare was frequently accompa- nied by economic mismanagement, excessive price controls, and state-created barriers to internal trade and market development. However, some countries that were involved in particularly destructive armed confl icts implemented economic reforms and ini- tiated new developments after signing peace agree- ments and beginning the reconstruction process. In conclusion, when taking Gross National Income per capita into account, it becomes apparent that hunger and undernutrition tend to increase when economic resources are scarce or are lacking. There- fore, economic development plays a central role in the fi ght against hunger, but public funding and the societal structures are also critical; policies such as investment in health care, education, and social pro- tection, as well as the promotion of agriculture, im- prove food security and nutrition. Bad governance, increasing income inequality, encroachments on women’s rights, rising AIDS prevalence, high military expenditure, and participation in armed confl icts all have negative effects on index scores. Armed confl icts in particular exacerbate hunger, quite apart from their impact on a country’s macro- economic performance. They have long-lasting neg- ative effects on index scores that increase with the length of the war – as is made clear in the two case studies from Afghanistan and Sierra Leone present- ed in the second part of this report. Confl ict pre- vention and resolution as well as rehabilitation measures in the areas of agriculture, nutrition, and health after peace has been restored are therefore of critical importance. In a climate of peace and se- curity, public resources that have previously been diverted to military spending can be used for nec- essary investments in the agricultural, health, and education sectors. Agriculture can play a key role in fostering broad- based economic development and in improving food supply, especially in poor countries. Agricul- tural research and extension services should be sig- nifi cantly expanded and promoted in order to in- crease agricultural productivity. For Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, higher investments in rural in- frastructure, water and land management, and com- munications and marketing are essential for feeding a growing population. The improved provision of health and education services raises farmers’ productivity, and also has further positive effects: if these services are actually accepted by the population, child malnutrition and child mortality are reduced. This strategy mostly in- cludes educating the population about the benefi ts of health care and providing (fi nancial) incentives to use the services offered. A related aim is to increase school enrolment rates and create educational opportunities, particularly for girls. In regions like South Asia, women’s low status in society is partially responsible for their lack of knowledge about adequate caring and feeding practices and for the high number of malnourished children. If the fi ght against the AIDS epidemic and its negative impact on hunger and undernutrition is to be successful, then appropriate knowledge, health interventions, and other forms of direct as- sistance for affected families are required. The role of the government – from agriculture to business development and foreign policy – is cru- cial for improving the living conditions, working capacity, and incomes of hungry people. In devel- oping countries, investments in the agriculture, health, and education sectors are vital and can produce high returns, if not counteracted by bad governance and military confl ict. 12 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 3-1: Überschrift Überschrift Überschrift ÜbersÜberschrift Tabelle 3-1: Welthunger-Index (WHI) - Länderrangliste GHI Country Global Hunger Index rank 1981 1992 1997 2003 61 Armenia – – 12.19 13.30 62 Nicaragua 16.93 16.30 16.97 13.47 63 Uzbekistan – – 11.74 13.60 64 Honduras 20.73 16.40 16.97 14.03 65 Swaziland – 11.17 14.00 14.87 66 Ghana 35.87 27.03 18.67 14.87 67 Mongolia 18.50 18.03 24.68 15.83 68 Myanmar 25.20 19.27 15.53 16.17 69 Sri Lanka 24.90 22.40 21.87 16.63 70 Guatemala 24.73 17.27 17.70 16.87 71 Namibia 18.19 23.03 22.32 17.50 72 Philippines 22.40 21.77 19.63 17.55 73 Benin 29.00 19.30 20.97 17.77 74 Côte d’Ivoire 13.03 14.10 17.43 18.13 75 Vietnam 32.20 25.90 22.37 18.37 76 Botswana 23.93 18.47 16.37 18.57 77 Uganda 24.63 21.83 21.73 18.63 78 Gambia, The – 20.23 21.97 18.83 79 Nigeria 30.00 22.47 20.90 19.17 80 Cameroon 18.20 19.80 21.17 19.52 81 Mauritania 30.30 27.60 17.43 20.03 82 Senegal 20.17 18.87 19.90 20.13 83 Korea. Dem. Rep.1 19.35 15.48 20.91 20.33 84 Djibouti – 32.09 24.45 20.90 85 Togo 23.90 23.63 21.23 21.10 86 Kenya 19.40 23.67 22.93 21.73 87 Guinea 27.00 28.53 24.64 21.73 88 Pakistan 33.60 25.97 23.60 21.77 89 Timor-Leste – – – 22.29 90 Zimbabwe 22.00 21.77 23.50 23.20 91 Laos 29.53 25.70 26.73 23.83 92 Nepal 43.30 27.77 27.77 24.50 93 Haiti 34.63 34.93 33.23 25.33 94 Malawi 25.40 33.30 30.47 25.40 95 Sudan 23.47 26.17 22.80 25.67 96 India 41.23 32.73 25.73 25.73 97 Burkina Faso 40.27 21.87 22.87 25.80 98 Guinea-Bissau 30.75 22.61 25.39 26.61 99 Rwanda 27.23 29.17 32.10 27.20 100 Chad 42.17 36.40 35.87 27.33 101 Mali 41.43 25.27 31.97 28.07 102 Bangladesh 44.40 36.33 35.73 28.27 103 Central African Rep. 31.63 33.20 30.50 28.43 104 Mozambique 41.57 47.00 34.97 28.83 105 Yemen 38.90 25.90 30.70 29.19 106 Madagascar 23.23 30.77 31.93 29.92 107 Tanzania 22.33 27.53 31.63 29.97 108 Tajikistan – – 19.86 30.25 109 Cambodia 46.43 32.93 36.03 30.73 110 Comoros – 28.31 29.55 30.81 111 Zambia 21.77 31.17 30.57 31.77 112 Liberia 22.10 25.27 30.66 32.00 113 Angola 27.13 40.83 38.17 32.17 114 Niger 37.67 38.53 41.20 33.43 115 Sierra Leone 31.10 34.37 33.70 35.20 116 Ethiopia 39.20 46.31 41.72 36.70 117 Congo, Dem. Rep. 25.80 25.37 35.07 37.60 118 Eritrea – – 41.10 40.37 119 Burundi 27.73 32.27 39.71 42.70 Source: IFPRI Armed conflicts between 1989 and 2003. 1 North Korea, * GHI scores contain preliminary estimates of the underweight prevalence in children under five years. The 1997 GHI was used to rank Costa Rica, Libya, and Paraguay, because the 2003 GHI could not be calculated. Nine countries could not be included in the ranking due to lack of data: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Papua New Guinea, and Somalia. War between 1989 and 2003. GHI Country Global Hunger Index rank 1981 1992 1997 2003 1 Belarus – – 3.71 1.59* 2 Argentina 2.87 1.97 2.93 1.81 3 Chile 3.87 3.90 2.37 1.87 4 Ukraine – – 3.71 1.97 5 Romania – 3.92 2.36 2.07 6 Libya 6.37 4.67 2.40 – 7 Tunisia 9.00 4.97 4.43 2.47 8 Cuba 4.63 5.80 7.62 2.57 9 Lithuania – – 2.47 2.64* 10 Croatia – – 3.84 2.72 11 Latvia – – 3.46 2.74* 12 Uruguay 4.57 5.17 3.50 2.74 13 Russian Federation – – 3.80 2.93 14 Fiji – – 5.97 3.07 15 Slovakia – – 3.87 3.22* 16 Lebanon 8.67 5.63 3.23 3.28 17 Costa Rica 5.63 3.30 3.50 – 18 Kuwait 5.87 9.77 2.67 3.56 19 Estonia – – 3.00 3.56* 20 Mauritius 14.07 8.40 7.73 3.80 21 Syrian Arab Rep. 8.77 7.13 6.73 4.23 22 Bosnia & Herzeg. – – 5.56 4.60 23 Jordan 7.34 4.37 4.83 4.73 24 Serbia & Monten. – – 2.29 4.77 25 Mexico 9.93 7.47 5.99 5.10 26 Egypt. Arab Rep. 13.63 6.77 7.00 5.17 27 Jamaica 7.07 6.63 5.43 5.27 28 Brazil 10.43 8.43 6.70 5.43 29 Saudi Arabia 8.97 6.80 7.40 5.44 30 Turkey 9.77 6.97 4.93 5.45 31 Iran. Islamic Rep. 12.00 8.87 5.80 5.80 32 Macedonia. FYR – – 6.50 5.93 33 Paraguay 8.70 8.37 6.16 – 34 Ecuador 13.70 10.07 7.73 6.22 35 Moldova – – 6.93 6.32* 36 Morocco 13.70 7.13 7.40 6.42 37 Algeria 13.83 7.00 7.57 6.50 38 Trinidad & Tobago 6.33 7.27 7.73 6.63 39 Albania 9.71 9.41 7.62 7.23 40 Colombia 11.53 9.67 8.13 7.27 41 Malaysia 12.67 10.10 7.73 7.57 42 South Africa – 7.42 7.32 7.66 43 Venezuela 6.13 6.17 7.93 7.83 44 Peru 19.23 19.63 10.80 7.83 45 Kazakhstan – – 4.96 8.17 46 El Salvador 16.63 11.07 9.80 8.17 47 China 20.10 12.57 8.57 8.23 48 Kyrgyzstan – – 10.34 8.36 49 Gabon 16.17 13.50 10.83 9.00 50 Suriname – – 9.39 9.37 51 Guyana – 15.10 12.83 9.83 52 Azerbaijan – – 14.89 10.27 53 Turkmenistan – – 11.40 10.40 54 Dominican. Rep. 16.13 14.03 12.40 11.27 55 Georgia – – 9.17 11.53 56 Bolivia 18.73 17.13 14.07 11.57 57 Panama 13.60 11.33 11.03 12.21 58 Thailand 23.37 17.83 13.80 12.36 59 Indonesia 28.17 18.53 15.60 12.47 60 Lesotho 18.87 16.13 14.57 12.80 All countries in comparison The Global Hunger Index in 119 countries 1 13 2.1 | Comparison of the countries ranked highest and lowest in the Index When comparing all countries ranked by the Global Hunger Index on the basis of the most recent fi gures, Belarus tops the list with a positive GHI score of just 1.6, followed closely by Argentina, Chile, Ukraine, and Romania. In comparison, Burundi and Eritrea are at the bottom of the list, with more than 40 points each. Nine of the 12 countries at the bottom of the list – Burundi, Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia, Cambodia, and Tajikistan – share one common characteristic: the hunger and undernutrition in these countries are partly the consequence of long-lasting armed con- fl icts. Mozambique was also strongly affected by war until the early 1990s. Afghanistan remains unstable to this day, so usable data for the country do not exist. Burundi’s dismal GHI score of 42.7 is a direct result of 10 years of armed confl ict, which has led to large pop- ulation displacements within the country, and also of a weak economy dependent on subsistence agricul- ture and the cultivation of coffee and tea for export. Hunger has been growing in Burundi steadily since the beginning of the 1980s. A new IFPRI study high- lights the desolate situation in Burundi: estimates of the proportion of the population with insuffi cient dietary energy availability – based on representative data on household expenditures – show that Burun- di ranks second to last of the 12 Sub-Saharan coun- tries investigated in the study (Ethiopia being in last place).4 However, Niger, Zambia, and Comoros are also among the 12 lowest-ranked countries, according to the GHI, although they were not involved in wars between 1989 and 2003. In Niger, some minor armed con- fl icts involving nomadic sections of the population did occur between 1992 and 1997, but a more impor- tant factor may be that the country is part of the eco- logically vulnerable Sahel zone, which has irregular rainfalls. In 2005 a protracted drought and a plague of locusts led to a dramatic famine, the consequences of which have not yet been captured by the current GHI. Comoros, on the other hand, has scarce natural resources, poor infrastructure, and is politically un- stable. Since its independence in 1975, the country has witnessed frequent coups d’état or attempted coups d’état. And though Zambia was not directly involved in confl ict, it was indirectly affected by the long-last- ing civil wars in Angola and Mozambique because it accepted many refugees from those countries. Zambia also has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, at almost 17 percent.5 The disease has ravaged the country’s economic, political, and social devel- opment. In addition, Zambia has become more and more impoverished in recent decades and has become increasingly indebted due to the declining price of copper, its most important export commodity. How- ever, economic reforms implemented in the 1990s may provide some new hope. 2. | Global developments in Hunger GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 14 2.2 | Major regional differences Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are hot spots of hunger and undernutrition, but countries such as Haiti in the Caribbean; Yemen in the Near East; Tajik- istan in Central Asia; Laos, Cambodia, and East Ti- mor in Southeast Asia; and the Democratic Republic of Korea in East Asia all have GHI scores greater than 20. Rampant poverty in these countries is the major cause of widespread hunger and high rates of child malnutrition and child mortality. However, there has been some progress in combat- ing hunger in the past decade: Ghana and Chad in West and Central Africa and large parts of the Ande- an region in South America were able to reduce their GHI scores considerably. The same is true for Ethio- pia, Mozambique, and Angola, but all three coun- tries still have alarmingly high scores. Positive trends can also be observed throughout most of South and Southeast Asia, particularly in India and China. The Green Revolution – that is, the introduction in the 1960s of high-yielding rice and wheat varieties together with irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticides – partly explains the contrasting development paths of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The Green Revolution was far more successful in Asia, where the new tech- nologies were widely embraced, than in Africa, where they were not. Poor infrastructure, high transporta- tion costs, insuffi cient investment in irrigation, and unfavourable pricing and marketing policies made the Green Revolution technologies too expensive or inappropriate for much of Africa. Consequently, cereal yields in Asia increased by 160 percent from 1961 to 1997, but only by 50 percent in Africa, which already had a lower initial level. Though its negative effects on the environment and mixed outcomes for smallholders were heavily criticized, the Green Re- GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX Industrial Country 1.5–9.9 (low to moderate hunger) 10.0–19.9 (serious) 20.0–29.9 (alarming) 30.0–39.9 (very alarming) 40.0–49.9 (disastrous) no data available Source: IFPRI, based on data from FAO 2005, WHO 2006, UNICEF 2005 and author‘s estimates. World Hunger Map Global Hunger Index 2003 15 volution nevertheless had a tangible positive impact: rapid agricultural growth in Asia boosted economic growth and public investment in rural areas, bene- fi ting food security and nutrition. Through higher in- comes and lower prices, people not only had more food at their disposal, but they also benefi ted from a more diversifi ed, higher-quality diet with larger shares of fruits, vegetables, and animal products. 2.3 | Africa: A continent of stark contrast A glance at the levels of hunger in the various regions of the world shows that Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest GHI score and therefore ranks lowest, closely followed by South Asia. Overall Sub-Saharan Africa made the most negligible progress of all the regions between 1981 and 2003. Despite having a relatively high average GHI score of about 28 in 1981, its score decreased by only 2.6 points in more than two dec- ades. Hence, hunger remains a stark reality in all Sub-Saharan countries. Declines in the proportion of undernourished and the under-fi ve mortality rate by 6.4 and 3.5 percentage points, respectively, were partly outweighed by a rise in underweight prevalence in children by 2.1 percen- tage points. The negative trend of rising child malnu- trition has also taken a turn for the better since 1997. Yet Africa is a continent of extreme contrasts: while hunger has increased in Burundi, where the GHI score rose by about 15 points from 1981 to 2003, there has been considerable progress in Ghana, where the GHI score dropped by 21 points. In Ghana, the propor- tion of undernourished was reduced from 61 percent in 1979-81 to 13 percent in 2000-2002. This was the result of the introduction of new yam, maize, rice, and cassava varieties; a 25 percent increase in cropped areas; and rapid economic growth in other sectors. In addition, the population gained better access to edu- cation, health services and safe water during the same period. As a result, the under-fi ve mortality rate fell from 15.7 percent in 1980 to 9.5 percent in 2003 and the prevalence of underweight in children decreased by about 9 percentage points. In several other West African countries, like Benin and Nigeria, hunger was also reduced considerably from 1981 to 2003. In the same period, however, the GHI score in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Sierra Leone rose by about 10, 5, and 4 points, respectively. These three countries, were subject to political instability, ethnic confl icts, or civ- il wars during the 1990s. The Democratic Republic of Congo in southern Africa also belongs to this cat- egory of countries with rising hunger due to serious armed confl icts. Mozambique, on the other hand, is gradually reco- vering from the consequences of a 15-year war that ended in 1992. The considerable reduction in the GHI score for Mozambique is based on declines in all three index components. Negative GHI trends were also reversed in two other post-confl ict countries in the 1990s: Angola and Ethiopia. GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 27.8 27.0 25.2 40.3 32.0 22.5 15.1 10.9 12.6 7.5 9.3 11.1 25.1 6.6 30 20 10 0 40 GHI 8.2 Hunger on the decline Regional GHI trends 1981-2003 1981 1992 2003 South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa Southeast Asia Near East and North Africa For Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, data availability is not sufficient to show long-term trends Latin America and the Caribbean Source: IFPRI 16 2.4 | Asia: Concern over North Korea In contrast to the sluggish overall trends in Sub-Saha- ran Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia made great strides in combating hunger from 1981 to 2003. Start- ing with the highest regional GHI score of about 40 in 1981, South Asia’s score fell below that of Sub-Saharan Africa by 2003. Notable reductions in the proportion of undernourished in the population (about 16 per- centage points), underweight prevalence in children (about 21 percentage points), and child mortality (about 9 percentage points) led to a large decrease of 15.2 GHI points during this period. Southeast Asia al- ready had a considerably lower GHI score than South Asia, but nonetheless reduced it from about 23 to 11.6 points from 1981 to 2003: undernourishment in the total population dropped by 17 percentage points, underweight prevalence in children fell by 14 percen- tage points, and the under-fi ve-mortality rate dropped by 4 percentage points. North Korea is the only country in the regional rank- ing not in step with these favourable developments; between 1981 and 2003, hunger increased there. How- ever, the Asian country with the greatest GHI increase must certainly be Afghanistan, a country that has been ravaged by civil war for decades, although data are not available to confi rm this hypothesis.6 China and India, the population giants in East Asia and South Asia, made large contributions to the overall very positive trends in these two regions. Between 1961 and 1997, cereal yields quadrupled in China and more than doubled in India, while the proportion of undernour- ished was reduced in both countries. Moreover, the two economies grew at impressive rates: in China, Gross Na- tional Income per capita7 increased almost sixfold from 1980 to 2003, and more than doubled in India. The proportion of the population with access to safe water was already high in China in the early 1980s (86 percent), and increased notably in India by the 1990s (from 54 percent to 81 percent). Underweight in children was reduced by about 13 percentage points in China and by more than 20 percentage points in India, whereas the under-fi ve mortality rate was cut back by more than 40 percent in China and was halved in India from 1981 to 2003. 2.5 | The Near East and North Africa: Poor scores for Yemen In the Near East and North Africa, the GHI was al- ready low in 1981, but fell almost 5 more points by 2003. The largest drop occurred between the begin- ning of the 1980s and the early 1990s, with smaller declines accruing afterward. In contrast to Southeast Asia, a decrease in child mortality primarily contrib- uted to this positive change: the under-fi ve mortal- ity rate dropped by about 9 percentage points from 1981 to 2003. In 1981, food availability was already at a high level, which is why the proportion of un- dernourished was only about 8 percent at the time. Nonetheless, the proportion of undernourished de- creased by 2 more percentage points by 2003, while underweight prevalence in children was reduced by almost 5 percentage points. However, Iraq was not included in these calculations8. In addition, Yemen is lagging behind all other countries in this region: its GHI score is more than 20 points higher than the score of other countries in the Near East and North Africa. Moreover, the country shows an inconsistent trend over the 1981-2003 period. The war between Kuwait and Iraq is refl ected in the increase of hunger in Kuwait in the beginning of the 1990s. However, the transient shortfalls in food supply that resulted from this interstate confl ict and that drove the rise in the 1992 GHI could be overcome relatively quickly. 2.6 | Latin America: Slow progress In Latin America and the Caribbean, there was su- stained but slow progress from 1981 to 2003: its GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 17 GHI declined by 4.6 points from a starting point of 11.1 in 1981. In the same period, the proportion of undernourished, the prevalence of underweight in children, and the child mortality rate have fallen slowly – by about 2, 6, and 5 percentage points, re- spectively. The pattern of change is therefore similar to that of the Near East and North Africa, but with a smaller reduction in child mortality. The Green Revolution was also successfully applied in Latin America, and contributed to improved food supplies and rising incomes. On average, there is more hunger in Central America and the Caribbean than in South America, but the situation improved for all countries in this subregion from 1981 to 2003. Only Haiti is still lagging behind, although more re- cently it, too, has been catching up. The GHI stagnat- ed in the 1980s and the 1990s, but despite political turmoil and violent confl ict in recent years, the GHI decreased by almost 8 points from 1997 to 2003. This positive decline in the index was based on re- ductions in all three components. Considerable prog- ress is also noted for Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Bolivia: the GHI score in these coun- tries decreased by more than 7 points between 1981 and 2003. However, a slightly negative trend indicat- ing rising hunger has been observed in Venezuela. 2.7 | The East: Central Asia and the Caucasus face diffi culties A lack of data for the 1980s and early 1990s prevents the observation of long-term trends in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Most of these nation states came into existence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union or after the Balkan War in the 1990s. GHI scores for 1997 and 2003 suggest a very minor improvement in this period. However, the region received a GHI score of 6 in 2003, the lowest among all regions considered. The fi ve Central Asian countries (Tajikistan, Uz- bekistan, Turkmenistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Kazakhstan) and the three countries affected by the Caucasus confl ict (Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbai- jan) had more hunger in 2003 than the Eastern Eu- ropean countries listed in the ranking. The dramatic rise between 1997 and 2003 in the GHI score of civil war-ridden Tajikistan stands out. Dietary energy sup- ply fell from 2180 to 1800 kcal per capita between 1995-97 and 2000-2002, while the proportion of un- dernourished concomitantly rose by more than 30 percentage points and the under-fi ve mortality rate increased by more than 4 percentage points from 1997 to 2002.9 2.8 | GHI components show strong regional differences There are considerable variations in the causes and manifestations of hunger in the individual regions – a fact that is illustrated by the different contributions the three GHI indicators make to each region’s av- erage score: in South Asia, for example, underweight prevalence in children is relatively high, whereas in Sub-Saharan Africa, child mortality and undernour- ishment in the total population play a larger role. Even if the two regions’ current GHI scores are si- milar, they are nonetheless the outcome of different determinants and development processes. Thus, the main cause of child undernutrition in South Asia is inadequate feeding and caring practices, which are the result of the low status and low education of many South Asian women. In Africa, however, droughts, armed confl ict, and life-threatening infectious dis- eases play a far greater role than in Asia. They are primarily responsible for food scarcity and the high child mortality rate. This comparison shows how the Global Hunger Index captures a more comprehensive picture of food security and nutrition derived from more causal factors than any of the three single indi- cators in isolation. A comparison of GHI components in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) on the one hand, and in Latin America and the Caribbean on the other, pro- GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 18 vides another interesting example: although each re- gion has a 2003 GHI score of about 7, underweight in children is the main problem in the Near East and North Africa, whereas undernourishment in the total population is the primary concern in Latin Ameri- ca and the Caribbean. The cause of underweight in children in the NENA region is again the low status of women, especially with regard to access to education and training. Research has shown that this is one of the main determinants of underweight in children10. In contrast, in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union, where women enjoy com- paratively higher levels of education and have high participation rates in the labour force, the prevalence of underweight in children is lower than the propor- tion of undernourished in the population. Great progress in Asia—but still high levels of underweight in children Contribution of the three components to the Global Hunger Index Source, IFPRI Proportion of undernourished Prevalence of underweight in children Under-five mortality rate35 30 25 20 15 10 5 81 92 97 03 n.a. 27.8 27.0 26.7 25.2 81 92 97 03 81 92 97 03 81 92 97 03 81 92 97 03 81 92 97 03 40.3 32.0 26.6 25.1 22.5 15.1 11.9 10.9 12.6 8.2 8.0 7.5 11.1 9.3 7.9 6.6 6.0 5.6 GHI Years CONTRIBUTION OF THE THREE COMPONENTS TO THE GHI SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA SOUTHEAST ASIA NEAR EAST & NORTH AFRICA LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN EASTERN EUROPE & FORMER SOVIET UNION SOUTH ASIA For Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, only data for 1997 and 2003 are available GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 19 3.1 | Economic performance is not always the decisive factor Gross National Income (GNI) is an important indi- cator for macroeconomic performance and plays a central role in food security. A range of goods and services are required to provide households with suffi cient food and ensure basic education and a functioning health care system. These goods and services have to be produced domestically or be im- ported. Gross National Income per capita is used here to assess the GHI scores for 2003 relative to a country’s economic performance. This scatter plot shows a clear association between the two indica- tors: poor countries tend to have poor (high) GHI scores. The graph also denotes the countries that have bet- ter GHI scores than would be expected on the ba- sis of their GNI per capita. They are located below the green line on the graph. Conversely, there are also numerous countries that have a considerably worse GHI score than their level of economic devel- opment would suggest, leading to questions about how effectively available economic resources in those countries are being used for improving food secu- rity and nutrition.11 3. | The causes of hunger are diverse Anomalies in predicted GHI scores Actual and predicted GHI scores for 2003 in comparison with Gross National Income (in thousands of $) per capita per year. . 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Angola Thailand Botswana Cambodia BurundiMalawi India South Africa Saudi Arabia Fiji Ukraine Benin Panama Guatemala Moldova Philippines Namibia China Ecuador Syria Nepal Haiti Bangladesch Ethiopia Eritrea 1,000 $ Global Hunger Index Source: IFPRI Eastern Europe & the former Soviet Union Latin America & the Caribbean Subsaharan Africa South & Southeast Asia Near East & North Africa Predicted GHI score The purchasing power of local currencies was taken into account when calculating Gross National Income per capita in $. COUNTRIES IN: GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I 20 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I Sub-Saharan Africa In Sub-Saharan Africa there are many countries that have considerably worse GHI scores than would be expected according to their GNI per ca- pita: this applies in particular to Namibia, Angola, and Botswana, but also to Burundi, Comoros, Eri- trea, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Con- go. Political instability in Comoros and the conse- quences of (civil) wars in Angola, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have already been discussed as causes of hunger. However, in Namibia and Botswana, which are middle-income countries, high income inequality and very high HIV infection rates account for the relatively bad scores. Botswana has achieved im- pressive economic growth thanks to its export trade in diamonds (which accounts for about 30 percent of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP)), tourism, and the corresponding investments made in the last decades. At the same time, the poverty rate has re- mained high because large parts of the population do not benefi t from growth. The situation is simi- lar in Namibia where the mining sector – especially diamond extraction and processing – accounts for 20 percent of the country’s GDP but only employs about 3 percent of the population. Around half of the national cereal requirement has to be imported, and in drought years food shortages occur in rural areas. Benin and Malawi, however, have more favoura- ble GHI scores than expected. Agriculture has been a driving force in Benin’s economic growth in the last decades: the yields of the most important staple foods doubled between 1970 and 1997, the area un- der cultivation was expanded, and total food supply was considerably increased. This shows the bene- fi ts of a broad-based growth model that is initially founded on agriculture: Despite Benin’s consider- ably lower per capita income, Benin’s GHI score is lower than that of Botswana. South and Southeast Asia In Asia, the high GHI scores in Cambodia, India, and Bangladesh relative to the GNI per capita are striking. Whereas Cambodia is still suffering from War, AIDS and hunger in Africa The differences between actual and predicted GHI scores in Sub-Saharan Africa. 1-3 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war 4-6 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war 7 or more years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war HIV/AIDS prevalance > 10% (rate among adults aged 15 to 49) Positive values show that the situation is worse than expected when comparing to the Gross National Income per capita (GHI scores are higher than predicted). Negative values show that the situation is better than expected when comparing to the Gross National Income per capita (the GHI is lower than predicted). Information on wars is taken from UCDP 2006; data about HIV/AIDS are from UNAIDS/WHO 2006. HIV prevalence rates greater than 10 percent among adults are only observed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eritrea 14.0 13.6Botswana Angola 11.9 Burundi 11.5 Namibia 10.4 Comoros 9.9 Ethiopia 7.0 Congo, Dem. Rep. 6.6 South Africa 5.0 Niger 4.9 Sudan 4.6 Swaziland 4.6 Central African Rep. 3.5 Zambia 3.2 Rwanda 3.1 Guinea 2.8 Mozambique 2.4 Djibouti 2.1 Mauritius 2.1 Sierra Leone 1.7 Madagascar 1.2 Chad 0.9 Mali 0.8 Burkina Faso 0.6 Gabon 0.2 Cameroon–0.1 Mauritania–0.2 Togo–0.4 Senegal–1.6 Tanzania–2.0 Gambia–2.0 Lesotho–2.2 Guinea-Bissau–3.4 Ghana–3.8 Côte d’Ivoire–4.4 Kenya–4.5 Uganda–4.5 Malawi–6.7 Benin–8.0 Nigeria–8.9 Source: IFPRI 21 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I the aftermath of long-term confl icts that lasted un- til 1998, India and Bangladesh’s poor performance is the result of a high prevalence of child malnutriti- on due to the low status of women in the region, ad- verse culturally ingrained food habits, and a lack of knowledge. Many women in Bangladesh, for exam- ple, believe that they should eat less during preg- nancy. As a consequence, a third of all children in Bangladesh are already underweight at birth. Fur- thermore, the extremely high population density in this country make any further extension of land under cultivation impossible. Consequently, cereal production can hardly keep pace with rapid popu- lation growth despite increases in yield. The Near East and North Africa The majority of countries in the Near East and North Africa performed comparatively well, particularly Egypt and Syria. Relatively equal income distribu- tions within the countries play an important role. On top of that, Egypt massively subsidises the most important staple foods. This means that even the poorer segments of the population have access to suffi cient food. This subsidy policy, however, also has a reverse side: widespread overnutrition due to excessively high calorie consumption. Latin America and the Caribbean In Latin America and the Caribbean, Ecuador and Jamaica are special cases with relatively low (and therefore favourable) GHI scores. Income distribu- tion also plays an important role in this region: it is relatively equal in Jamaica, but is very unequal in Guatemala. Panama, Guatemala, and Haiti are negative examples with a high GHI score relative to GNI per capita: Haiti’s is the result of a long history of political crises and bad governance during which the elite enriched itself at the expense of the rest of the population. Deforestation, soil erosion, and un- suitable farming methods are also major obstacles to agriculture in Haiti, which have negative conse- quences for food availability. Furthermore, in com- parison with other countries with a low per capita income, Haiti has an extremely poor health and ed- ucation infrastructure. Social discrimination against women The differences between actual and predicted GHI scores in South Asia and Southeast Asia 1-3 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war 4-6 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war 7 or more years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war Cambodia India Bangladesh 7.9 Philippines 6.7 Thailand 6.1 Malaysia 3.5 Sri Lanka 3.4 Laos 2.7 Pakistan 2.4 Nepal 1.6 Vietnam 0.7 Indonesia–2.2 China–2.5 Mongolia–4.9 Fiji–5.9 11.0 9.6 Source: IFPRI Hunger and income inequality The differences between actual and predicted GHI scores in Latin America and the Caribbean 1-3 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war 4-6 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war Guatemala 5.0 Panama Haiti 4.7 Dominican Rep. 3.9 Trinidad & Tobago 3.4 Mexico 1.3 Argentina 0.4 Brazil–0.1 Colombia–0.2 Nicaragua–1.0 Chile–1.2 Venezuela–1.3 El Salvador–1.9 Uruguay–2.0 Costa Rica–2.0 Peru–2.1 Guyana–2.3 Honduras–2.6 Paraguay–3.2 Bolivia–5.6 Jamaica Ecuador–7.6 4.7 –7.6 Source: IFPRI 22 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I Hunger in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union The differences between actual and predicted GHI scores in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union 1-3 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war 4-6 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war Tajikistan 3.3 Slovak Rep. Estonia 2.7 Lithuania 0.5 Croatia 0.2 Kazakhstan–0.2 Latvia–0.5 Armenia–0.7 Macedonia–1.0 Russian Federation–1.6 Bosnia & Herzegovina–3.2 Albania–3.7 Azerbaijan–4.6 Romania–4.6 Georgia–6.0 Belarus–6.9 Uzbekistan–7.6 Ukraine–7.9 Kyrgyz Rep. Moldova–15.0 3.2 –13.0 Turkmenistan 0.7 Source: IFPRI Subsidies in Egypt The differences between actual and predicted GHI scores in the Near East and North Africa 1-3 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war 4-6 years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war 7 or more years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war Kuwait Saudi Arabia Yemen 0.6 –1.1 –1.8 –2.0 –4.4 –6.2 –6.8 –7.0 –7.3 Iran Turkey Algeria Tunisia Morocco Jordan Lebanon Egypt Syria–9.6 7.4 5.5 Source: IFPRI Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union When taking Gross National Income per capita into account, the GHI score of several countries in East- ern Europe and the former Soviet Union – Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan – is amazingly low. The economic situation in many transition countries deteriorated for a number of years after the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc, but high levels of education, the existing infrastructure, prior invest- ments in the health care system, and home-garden- ing on private plots prevented large rises in child malnutrition and child mortality. Income inequality has increased during the economic transition but is still low in most countries with a socialist legacy and contributes to favourable GHI scores relative to GNI per capita.12 This raises questions as to what extent factors other than national income are responsible for causing hunger and undernutrition. 3.2 | The spread of HIV and AIDS has negative consequences The spread of AIDS has huge effects on agricultural production and household food security. In Sub-Sa- haran Africa alone, there are more than 12 million AIDS orphans. Given the high death and disease toll due to AIDS, the effect on some countries is crit- ical: traditional kinship networks reach the limits of their capacity in providing care for orphans and the sick. The risk of infection is particularly high for women and girls due to biological reasons and especially because their weak position in society of- ten makes it diffi cult for them to refuse unprotected sexual contact. If they become sick from AIDS, they can no longer carry out their role as pivotal care- givers for children and sick family members. Full- blown AIDS is usually accompanied by progressive wasting and favours the spread of other contagious diseases like tuberculosis. With a mother-to-child transmission rate of between 25 percent and 35 per- cent, HIV is contributing substantially to increasing infant and child mortality rates in those Sub-Saha- ran countries most affected by AIDS. 23 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I In 2003, the highest HIV prevalence rates in adults were found in Botswana and Swaziland (24 and 32 percent, respectively). Prevalence rates greater than 5 percent are limited to Sub-Saharan African countries. In the graph focusing on Africa, countries with HIV prevalence rates higher than 10 percent are marked by the striped bars. With the exception of Comoros and Niger, all Sub-Saharan African countries with GHI scores that exceed the predicted GHI score by more than 3 points were either engaged in warfare between 1989 and 2003 or have HIV prevalence rates greater than 10 percent. Taking into account the variation in GNI per capita by means of statistical techniques, it turns out that the Global Hunger Index is 3.9 points higher in countries with an HIV prevalence rate greater than 10 percent than it is in countries with lower infection rates. This can be attributed to signifi cant differences in the proportion of undernourished and the under- fi ve mortality rate (+7.1 and +4.1 percentage points respectively). This result highlights the necessity of fi ghting the AIDS pandemic much more effectively in order to achieve long-term food security in the af- fected countries. 3.3 | War and armed confl ict cause hunger War and armed confl ict usually have severe conse- quences for food security, nutrition, and the health of the population as a whole. Combatants frequent- ly use hunger as a weapon: they use siege tactics to cut off food supplies and productive capacities, star- ve opposing populations into submission, and hijack food aid intended for civilians.13 There are large pro- duction shortfalls – especially in agriculture – when markets are disrupted; when crops, roads, and land are destroyed; and when livestock are killed. In ad- dition, supplies of fertilizer and machinery dwindle and there are hardly any economic incentives for farmers in times of war. Killings and displacement, which are a daily reality during war, have negative consequences on the agri- cultural labour force. Instead of working in the fi elds, young men are either recruited for combat or go into hiding during the day. Refugees are also unable to provide for themselves, and often have to be sup- ported with emergency relief under diffi cult condi- tions. Rising prices, mounting unemployment, and income losses lead to a declining demand for food in the market. The disastrous effects of violent confl ict on food security, however, do not always show up in GNI sta- tistics. If, for example, a war economy is booming through trade in diamonds or oil, macroeconomic statistics can disguise the collapse of agriculture and resulting shortfalls in the population’s food supply. When a large portion of the population is displaced, the result is a dissolution of families, communities, and social networks. Children in particular suffer since they are largely dependent upon adult care- givers. Many lose their families, becoming orphans overnight, and are additionally traumatised by sub- sequent human rights violations.14 Schools are also destroyed, thereby thwarting the education of an en- tire generation. The health environment – the third main determinant of children’s nutritional status and survival chances – also deteriorates. Due to the sys- tematic destruction of health-care facilities – as oc- curred in Liberia, Mozambique and Sierra Leone – a high level of malnutrition, disease, and high mortali- ty rates often prevail even after warfare has ceased. This situation often leads to the outbreak of new confl icts as the populace fi ghts over scarce resources essential for survival. In refugee camps, displaced people are frequently subject to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and inadequate food supplies. Under such conditions, infectious diseases, includ- ing HIV and AIDS, can easily spread. The charts on pages 20-22 support the fact that wars have a direct negative impact on food security and nutrition apart from their effect on the economy: countries in confl ict or post-confl ict often have much worse GHI scores relative to GNI per capita than do non-confl ict countries. 24 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I Classifying countries by the number of years between 1989 and 2003 in which there was war does not ade- quately refl ect the severity of the confl ict, its geo- graphical scale, or its effects on the population. Yet by looking at the example of Sub-Saharan Africa, it becomes evident that almost all countries with poor GHI scores relative to GNI per capita are still in the middle of civil war or are trying to recover from many years of confl ict. Bad governance often accompanies armed confl icts and aggravates the already desolate situation. Taking into consideration the variation of GNI per capita among countries, the GHI is 3.8 points higher in countries that were involved in warfare between 1989 and 2003 than in non-war countries.15 A high- er proportion of undernourished and a higher prev- alence of underweight in children in war countries (+6.9 and +4.2 percentage points, respectively, con- sidering the statistical differences in GNI per capita) are responsible for this result, while no signifi cant difference is observed with regard to the under-fi ve mortality rate. Child mortality, however, is affected by the AIDS pandemic, as already mentioned. Although daily life in each confl ict or post-confl ict country has its own unique characteristics stemming from cultural practices, climatic conditions, and se- curity issues among other factors, the following ac- counts from people in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, reveal that the core problems they face differ very little. The following case studies from post-war coun- tries in the Hindu Kush and West Africa show how different people attempt to carry on with their daily lives while under crisis situations, and demonstrates how they can be supported on the way to securing their livelihoods. The author, Dr. Doris Wiesmann, is a nutritionist at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington D.C. 1 More detailed background information on the current methods of measuring hunger is provided in the Appendix. 2 These theoretically extreme scores are not achieved in reality. See Appendix for an explanation. 3 The following selection criteria for countries were applied: the GHI was not calculated for countries with a dietary energy supply per capita higher than 2900 kcal (average for 1995-97) and an under-fi ve mortality rate under 1.5 percent (15 per 1000 live births) in 1997. Exceptions to this rule are Kuwait, Malaysia, and Slovakia which, due to special character- istics, were included in the calculation. For a more detailed description of the rationale behind the selection criteria, see Wiesmann 2004. 4 Smith et al. 2006. 5 UNAIDS/WHO 2006 6 According to earlier data used in the Nutrition Index (the predecessor of the Global Hunger Index), Afghanistan’s situation worsened dramat- ically in the 1980s and the 1990s (see Wiesmann 2004). Several factors, most of which are associated with continuous warfare, contributed to the country’s desperate situation in 1997: between 1980 and 1996 the population grew by 25 percent, partly through the return of refugees. Cereal production fell slightly, because more than 40 percent of arable land in Afghanistan is mined and cannot be farmed. The war- affected economy was unable to generate imports to fi ll the gap. The prevalence of underweight in children was estimated to be at around 21 percent in 1980 and amounted to almost 50 percent in 1997 (see page 56 in the Appendix). Women, the main caregivers of children who are especially susceptible to nutritional defi ciencies, were deprived of their rights and opportunities by the war and by rigid legislation and cultural practices – particularly after the Taliban seized power in 1996. In 1997, 50 percent of men and 81 percent of women were illiterate, and 2 per- cent of the population had become casualties of landmines. 7 In international dollars, taking the purchasing power of local currencies into account. 8 In 2005 FAO did not publish any new estimates of the proportion of undernourished in Iraq and also withdrew all past fi gures on dietary energy supply per capita. Therefore, no GHI scores could be calculated for this country, which comprises about 6 percent of the population of the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. Because the under-fi ve mortality rate increased by 4.3 percentage points in Iraq from 1981 to 2003, and the underweight prevalence in children by about 1.4 percentage points in the same period, the current trends for the NENA region would probably be slightly less favourable if Iraq had been included. 9 A detailed account of GHI trends in subregions between 1981 and 2003 is available in the Appendix. 10 Smith and Haddad 2000. 11 Of course the willingness and ability of countries to use economic resources to reduce hunger is not the only explanation for the diver- gences between the actual and predicted GHI scores. The differences also result from inevitable errors in the data and random deviations, and minor deviations should thus not be overstated. 12 The reliability of statistics on national accounts in these countries must, however, be called into question. 13 Messer et al. 2001. 14 Recent studies point out severe psychiatric disorders in war refugees: a study of Cambodian refugees shows that 68 percent suffered from acute clinical depression and 37 percent from post-traumatic stress disorder (Mollica 2000). 15 This result was obtained by means of a regression analysis that includes the logarithm of GNI per capita, and is statistically signifi cant. For a more systematic econometric analysis of the effects of war and the duration of war on hunger and undernutrition, see Wiesmann 2004. Ph ot os : t . P au l H ah n, r. C hr is ta L ac he nm ai er , l . D W H H 25 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART I Hunger is not the only outcome of war and armed confl ict: marauding child soldiers threaten the popu- lation, mines claim numerous victims, and people are often displaced from their homeland, sometimes spending years in refugee camps. 26 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II Since the end of the war, organising daily life in Sierra Leone and Afghanistan has taken considerable effort. People are making the most of it. 27 AFGHANISTAN AND SIERRA LEONE are two coun- tries with a typical history of being devastated by years of civil war where the GHI is consequently very high, although due to the lack of data, the GHI in Afghanistan is not even calculable any longer. Hun- ger and malnutrition – sometimes in hidden forms – are a part of daily life for most of the population. Roads and schools have been destroyed in many regions and are only slowly being rebuilt. Clean water and basic health care are in short supply al- most everywhere. Furthermore, in contrast to Sierra Leone, security in Afghanistan is now deteriorating, despite the presence of an international peace- keeping force, and reconstruction is slow. Welthungerhilfe is active in both countries, sup- porting the poverty-stricken population in a num- ber of projects. The main objective is to help people help themselves, thus enabling them to provide for themselves on a long-term basis. This can be made possible through a consistent linkage of concrete re- lief measures – like the provision of food, farming implements or seeds for refugees – and the recon- struction of destroyed infrastructure (i.e. bridges or schools) as well as the establishment of self-help groups with the aim of generating income. Welthungerhilfe provides help from one set of hands – a philosophy which is very much a driving force behind the organisation’s work in former war zones and crisis regions. We link relief, rehabilitation and development. An important aspect of this is capa- city building, involving the training and guidance of new self-help groups, i.e. groups who develop new sources of income with the aid of small loans, or smallholders in eastern Afghanistan who recei- ve help in producing roses for oil extraction as a fi - nancial alternative to growing opium poppies. Such programmes, however, call for considerable staying power: as a result of war and displacement, entire generations have never been to school and most traditional civic structures are devastated. The fol- lowing reports from Afghanistan and Sierra Leone provide examples of people’s lifestyle in both post- confl ict countries and describe the way they can be supported in returning to a self-determined daily life. For this purpose in May and June 2006, mem- bers of Welthungerhilfe’s staff interviewed men and women who are involved in the organisation’s food security projects in the province of Nangahar in Afghanistan and in the districts of Bo and Kenema in Sierra Leone. 4. | After the war: People in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone make a fresh start GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II Lioba Weingärtner and Iris Schöninger Ph ot os : l . M ic ha el Ö st er re ic h, r. Ir is S ch ön in ge r, t. T ho m as S ch ul ze /l ai f 28 5.1 | Reconstruction is overshadowed by confl icts Even before the outbreak of civil war in 1979, Afgha- nistan was one of the world’s poorest countries. Twen- ty years of confl ict has not made the situation any better. Although little reliable data on Afghanistan is available because of this, the UN Development Pro- gramme (UNDP) ascertained that population’s deve- lopment status was worse at the turn of the millenni- um than in the early 1990s.1 In addition to aspects of economic and social under- development (a devastated infrastructure, insuffi cient health care services, a lack of schools, clean drinking water and sources of income), the weak government also has to deal with an increasingly precarious security situation due to activities of the militant Taliban and a booming drug business.2 Central government car- ries little clout in the provinces, while at the same time there are huge tensions within the Afghan population itself due to religious, ethnic and regional confl icts of interest. Former warlords are still in power in several parts of the country or have been able to secure them- selves posts in the administration and government.3 Inequality within the population is growing. Those most affected are: • The poor: In comparison with the wealthiest 20% of the population, the poorest 20% spend four times as much on food in proportion to their income. • Children: They suffer at the hands of poverty and the impact of violence during war. • Women: Sexual discrimination experienced by women in Afghanistan is rife, especially in the fi elds of health care, education and access to and control of resources (i.e. land, loans, advice, employment and income) and in political partici- pation. Although farming is a vital source of both food and income for 80 to 90% of the population, depending on the region, yield is simply not enough for families to survive on. Land mines still present a major pro- blem to farming land. It is estimated that 70 to 80% of the 24 million people in Afghanistan are currently living below the poverty line. In Afghanistan • 62% of the population lacked suffi cient food during the second half of the 1990s (more up to date data is not available) and were therefore unable to cover their minimum dietary energy requirements • in 1997, 49% of children under the age of fi ve were underweight (no current data available) and • in 2003, 257 in 1000 live births died before the age of fi ve.4 5. | Afghanistan between war and peace GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II 29 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II Currently available data shows that 20% of Afghans living in rural areas are chronically undernourished and a further 18% are on the threshold. Nutrition is largely based on wheat bread and provides little va- riety. Almost 40% of children under the age of three are underweight, and more than half the children suffer from growth retardation (a result of chronic malnutrition and general poverty).5 After more than 20 years of war, the Afghan people have gone through a period of relative stability in more recent times, bringing with it hope for peace, security and development. Due to the considerable fi nancial commitment of the international commu- nity, the situation in Afghanistan has improved, and the presidential elections in October 2004 and the parliamentary elections in September 2005 were key milestones in the peace process. However, this pro- cess seems increasingly jeopardised by a number of • infrastructure and natural resources, • education, • health care, • farming and rural development, • social security, • economic development and supporting the private sector.7 5.2 | Each day is a struggle against hunger and poverty What do decades of war and the resulting lack of pro- spects mean for the individual person? What aspects of people’s lives change concretely as a consequence and how do they perceive their new living conditions? The answers given to these questions by women, men and Afghan colleagues at Welthungerhilfe in the eas- tern Afghan province of Nangahar confi rm conclu- sions drawn from current data collections about the country’s situation.8 Most Afghan households rely on a variety of income sources, many in the fi eld of agricultural and other income-generating activities. Farmland is scarce, and it’s mainly the poor who are forced to piece together their livelihood from various sources: “I earn a bit of money cutting wood in the mountains,” explains the 22- year-old farmer Moghadin from Pecha in the Achin district. He owns a plot of land (20m²) the size of a room. “Whenever I sell wood on the market, I buy food with the money.” There is also a shortage of irrigation systems, trek oxen and seed. Thus relocation within Afghanistan or migration ab- road are key strategies for many families in the fi ght for survival. “One of my sons works in Pakistan on a buil- ding site, the other in Kabul,“ explains Hazrat Pacha, an almost 70-year-old man from the village of Lok- hai. “They send us money. It saves us from destitution and means we can just about get by.” A major problem, particularly for many remote vil- lages in Afghanistan, is transport. Even if there are markets, medical centres or schools, access to them is extremely limited: “The next hospital is in Bar Nazian,” negative factors: the growing presence of the Taliban in the south and south-east of the country, the con- trol of entire regions by warlords and drug barons, a large rural-city-disparity and widespread tribal thin- king. The not always uncontroversial interventions by international peacekeeping forces and relief orga- nisations also contribute to a polarisation in the al- ready tense situation.6 In view of these extremely diffi cult conditions, the government’s current agenda is certainly a move in the right direction, yet many observers are doubtful whether its goals will be accomplished. In addition to good governance, the rule of law and the protection of human rights, economic and social development is one of the three key areas of collaboration between the Afghan government and international partners. Economic and social development should be stimu- lated by investments in the following areas: Afghanistan in short • Average life expectancy: 44.5 years • One in fi ve children dies before the age of fi ve • Every half hour a woman dies from pregnancy- related problems • Literacy rate: 34 %, amongst women only 18%. 30 explains Sarmatdschana, a 67-year-old woman from Mullakhel in the Nazian district. “That’s a long way away. You can rent a car, then it’s about an hour and a half’s drive. We’ve never done that because it’s too far. We try to use our own remedies.” Many households are in debt, and debt is in turn a primary determinant of poverty. Illness is often the hidden cause behind defi cient in- come and debt. Loans are often used to purchase food and medicine. The availability of drinking water and water for far- ming poses problems throughout the country. “We get our drinking water from the wells in the mountains. It’s about an hour’s walk. We don’t have much water for the fi elds, which makes us completely reliant on rainfall and mel- ting snow in spring. We desperately need a way of storing bread. We had green tea and bread for breakfast. Yesterday we had milk with water, sugar and bread at lunch and in the evening we had a bit of rice with chickpeas,” recalls Rahabza, who is amongst the poorest in her village. What‘s more, restrictions on women’s rights start at a very early age - even in the case of feeding in in- fanthood: “I always breastfed my children for two years,” says Tanadara, a 50-year-old mother of seven and wife of Hazrat Pacha from Lokhai. “After six months I bought some cow’s milk and dipped a bit of bread in it for the baby, because I didn’t have enough milk myself. In the summer I always added water, no matter how old the child was. At fi rst I gave my boys and girls the same, but as time went on, the boys got more and more. They were also given the best parts so that later on in life they can also provide well for their families.” GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II water for longer,” stresses Rahabza, a 30-year-old widow and mother of four from the mountain village of Ut- ran. Women in Afghanistan are integrated into a lot of productive and income-generating activities, yet they only seldom own their own resources like land or livestock, as opposed to the male heads of family. As a consequence they have no income of their own: “I help my husband to harvest roses, but I have no idea how much the output is or how much money we make from it,” explains Wali Azrata from the village of Sutan in the Dari Noor district. If money and provisions are short in the months pri- or to the harvest, the meals of many Afghans become even sparser and lacking in variety: “Today we’re eating wild spinach from the fi elds with a bit of cheese and corn Hazrat Pacha, 67 years old, lives with his 50-year- old wife Tanadara, his four daughters and three sons in Lokhai in the district of Achin: “Three of my children died straight after birth. We came back to Lokhai from Pakistan only a year ago. We fl ed twice from there during the war - the fi rst time when the Russians invaded. We stayed in Pakistan that time for eight years. Then we came back to Lokhai for two years, but because of the terrible drought, we left again six years ago. After that we lived in a refugee camp near Peshawar. We had better food there than we do today. We received it regularly and it was for free. It was cooked for us in a kit- chen and sometimes it even had meat and vegetables. At the moment we live off green tea and bread for breakfast, and from courgettes and salad with tomato and peppe- roni. The last time we had a family banquet was in Pa- kistan three years ago. My grandson was circumcised and I bought 15kg of beef and 15kg of rice for the occasion. Not a lot grows in our fi elds. We plant vegetables, but that’s not enough to live off. At the local market we buy courgettes, egg-plant, oil, tea and sugar. The range of goods on offer is better in the summer. Then fruit is available as well, particularly water melons. Things are very expensive in winter and we can’t afford much. Nor can we afford to irrigate our farmland. It costs 150 rupees an hour.9 We get our drinking water from down in the village. The women bring it. We do actually have a well here in the yard, but the water level has fallen and it’s dried out now. There’s a lot of sickness here in the area, above all stomach bugs, malaria and tuberculosis. In summer children often get diarrhoea and pass it on to each other.” Ph ot o: Ir is S ch ön in ge r Hazrat Pacha has to provide for a large family. 31 Rahabza has been a widow for several years and has to provide for her four children: “My name is Rahabza, I’m about 30 years old and I have three sons – Najid (15), Mohib Khan (10), Mansoor Khan (7) – and a daughter – Niamat Bibi (12). I had a second daughter but she died of a cold three months after birth. My husband died six years ago. I’ve been working in the fi elds since then, trying to get enough food for the children. I was born here in the village and spent a lot of time in the mountains during the war. We used to hide in caves. Now things are much better and we have our own house again. During the war we always used to grind corn with our hands to make bread. At night we came down to the village and worked in the fi elds, only the adults, though. The children stayed up in the caves. There were a lot of air attacks, often at night, too. When the Russians were here we li- ved in the mountains for four years. Life was quieter under the Mujaheddin, but things got worse under the Taliban, particularly for me. I had to hide in the mountains again because they didn’t want widows to work. We had our last family banquet three years ago when my son was circumcised. There was chicken and rice. I even bought a little oil just for the occasion. No one in my family earns money. My sons are still too young. I have a small fi eld where I grow maize in the summer and wheat in the winter. Occasional- ly I buy a chicken. Later on I sell its eggs or chicks. Or I might buy a goat and sell its young. It’s hardly enough to survive on. I’m in debt with a number of people. There is no market here in the village, just two small shops. You can buy sugar, tea, oil, soap or sweets for the children there. I’ve never been to a market in my whole life. But it’s still possible to get pretty much everything here in the village because you hear soon if someone wants to buy or sell something. When one of us is ill, I can’t afford medicine. We’re in God’s hands. When my husband was still alive things were better. He used to gather wood in the mountains. We didn’t buy or sell anything, but we had enough. But then my husband got very sick and we couldn’t go to the doctor. While he was ill, he always looked after the children and I went to work in the fi eld. Even that was better than it is today. There’s a lot of sickness here in the village, above all TB, polio, a lot of malaria and asthma or bronchitis. A lot of women have real problems after birth. Their joints swell up and they get high blood pressure. A lot of children die because the umbilical cord isn’t cut cleanly after birth. When people die, they say it was a bad spirit. There’s no proper school here. They recently put up some tents nearby for classes. My sons now go to school. My daughter is already too old.” GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II 5.3 | Reconstruction and self-organisation are the main issue Deutsche Welthungerhilfe10 has been working toge- ther with local and international partners in Afgha- nistan since 1980. A framework agreement with the government has been in place since 1992. Welthun- gerhilfe remained in Afghanistan even during the long years of war and was therefore able to jump into action and deliver emergency aid when the Taliban were overthrown in 2001.11 In 1980 it was refugees who had fl ed to Peshawar in Pakistan after the So- viet invasion who received emergency relief. Between 1986 and 1988 it was mainly partner organisations in Afghanistan. After the Mujaheddin seized power in Ph ot o: Ir is S ch ön in ge r The widow Rahabza had to spend years hiding in the mountains. 32 Ph ot os : t . a nd l. K ai S tr ut ho ff , r . I ri s Sc hö ni ng er 1992, Welthungerhilfe increased its help for refugees in Jalalabad, Kabul und Mazar-i-Sharif. However, in the course of the following years, the repair and re- construction of schools, irrigation systems, drinking water systems, roads, houses, latrines and workshops have gained importance. Due to hostilities, projects have also been repeatedly halted. With the exception of just a few days, Welthunger- hilfe is the only German NGO which has been ac- tive in Afghanistan since 1993 without interruption. The result is a solid basis of trust amongst the Afghan people and considerable respect for the organisation amongst partners in humanitarian aid and develop- ment cooperation: this positive foundation makes cooperation with representatives of the Afghan go- vernment easier, from a national to village level, as well as with donor organisations. In the meantime, Welthungerhilfe’s mission in most parts of the country is to provide help from one set of hands: despite some improvements, there are still shortages of food - caused by drought for instance - and the poor cannot survive without help. However, at the centre of all Welthungerhilfe’s current projects is reconstruction and various measures to achieve long-term capacity building, i.e. providing advice to both men and women on how they can “stand on their own two feet” in the medium term. In the long term they will hopefully be able to rely on the sup- port of an empowered government and a stronger ci- vil society which is in development. This is possible by undertaking the following measures: • Repair of communal and rural infrastructure, e.g. drinking water and irrigation plants, schools, bridges, • food security, • environmental and erosion protection, • strengthening civil society. 5.4 | Growing poppies is the main source of income In the eastern Afghan province of Nangahar, the war displaced large sections of the population and entire villages took fl ight. While the people were absent, the agricultural infrastructure fell apart or disintegrated entirely. Yet 80% of the population are still depen- dent upon agriculture and it is imperative for them to fi nd alternative sustainable sources of income. Un- fortunately, this is a more than diffi cult task because individual families have too little land, old irrigati- on systems are disintegrating and farming methods urgently need to be improved. However, there is a lack of capital for investments and the necessary ex- tension services. The province of Nangahar borders with Pakistan and is surrounded by mountain ranges where extreme climatic conditions are a part of dai- ly life. In recent years the amount of land usable for farming has dropped due to destroyed irrigation sys- tems and drought. There is a clear correlation between increasing land- lessness and debt, and a dependence upon usurers A F G H A N I S T A N Mazar-i- Sharif Kundus Shir Khan KABUL Bagram Ghazni KandaharZaranj Shindand Herat Towraghondi I R A N P A K I S T A N Jalalabad T U R K - M E N I S T A N TAJIKISTAN USBEKISTAN Indus Am u Darya 0 250 km PROJECT REGION NANGAHAR Project Region Nangahar Deutsche Welthungerhilfe projects GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II »The challenge is to help the Afghans help themselves.« Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General 33 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II In the remote mountain villages of the province of Nangahar, nearly all the families grow poppies because it brings the most revenue. 34 and drug barons: Nangahar is the second largest poppy-producing province in Afghanistan. This year Afghanistan’s poppy fi elds have been extended by almost 60% nationwide, thereby producing 6,100 tonnes of raw opium – an alarming all-time high which accounts for more than 92% of worldwide pro- duction. The production of opium poppies has been growing steadily since the overthrow of the Taliban. The search for alternative incomes is diffi cult since an- nual revenue from opium poppies averages US$5,400 per hectare in comparison with only US$730 for wheat. Roses, however, offer a realistic starting point: they can bring in revenue of about US$4,000 dollar per hectare. The area of irrigated farming land per family is often only between one and two jeribs (0.2 – 0.4 hectares). In the districts of Achin and Nazian – where Welthungerhilfe is just as active as in Dari Noor – 90% of local farmers rotate their crops from opium poppies and maize alongside beans and winter vegetables as an intercrop. In Dari Noor, opium poppy production increased from 30% in 2003 to 70% in 2004, though the local population did decide to stop growing poppies for 2005 and 2006. Although they kept their word, locals grew dissatisfi ed with the alter- native forms of income made available by relief orga- nisation and the government, and have therefore de- cided to return to large scale poppy farming next year. The provinces of Achin, Nazian and Dari Noor are mainly populated by Ghilzai Pashtuns and members of the Ahmadzai tribe. As in many other parts of Af- ghanistan, security in the province of Nangahar has deteriorated rapidly in the course of this year. The Ta- liban are increasingly trying to encourage inhabitants of many villages to engage in active resistance against the government by distributing fl yers in markets and mosques at night – though their methods of persua- sion also include the occasional threat of violence. The result is also a growing feeling of uncertainty amongst Afghan staff members within relief organisations, where female employees are in particular danger. 5.5 | New perspectives: Training and organisation are the fi rst steps In order to improve the income and food securi- ty situation of the general population in the above districts, 50 self-help groups were set up in autumn 2005. Each group has around 22 members and they currently receive guidance and consultation from six Welthungerhilfe community development staff mem- bers and other qualifi ed employees. The initial aims of the project include the setting up of village banks as well as training in income-generating trades like fi sh- farming, tailoring, carpet weaving, tree nurseries and cattle breeding. At the same time there are literacy GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II Women learn to weave carpets in order to generate their own income. 35 classes as well as information meetings on the subject of health care. Once the groups have been consolidat- ed, the idea is to encourage individual group mem- bers to take on the role of disseminators to train and teach in the future. The fi rst groups were formed for the allocation of small loans: “I’ve joined a group where I’m learning how to save money,” explains Rahabza from Utran. “Four women have already received a small loan. I put between 10 and 15 ru- pees aside twice a month. When it’s my turn to receive a loan, I want to buy chickens, maybe later even a cow. Then I can sell its calf.” In accordance with cultural practice in Afghanistan, the groups are separated according to gender. On the whole, men are more solvent and are therefore in a better position to develop new sources of income. Hazrat Pacha from Lokhai is an example: “I’m a member of a self-help group and have already received a small loan from the village fund: 16,000 rupees from a total of 80,000 rupees to be divided up amongst fi ve people. I’ve got six months to pay back the money. I bought fi ve goats and I’m going to rear the kids and then sell them. The other members of the group did the same with their money. I pay between 30 and 50 rupees a month back into the fund, depending on how much I can afford. I would never have been able to buy a goat without this loan, so the project activities are very positive for me. I take it in turns with other members of my group to look after the goats: one of us always has to be with the herd as they look for food. It’s my turn every ten days.” Although it is still early days in the development of local capacities in this project region - as is essenti- ally the case in the whole of Afghanistan - the fi rst steps of providing advice and support in strengthen- ing existing structures and organisations as well as building new ones have already been taken. At the same time, 20 literacy courses - 10 for men and 10 for women - are taking place to prepare people for the forthcoming launch of village banks. At the mo- ment, the courses run for six months and can be ex- tended if need be. The aim of this project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is the creation and diversifi - cation of income through access to education and credit. In addition, money is being invested in the construction of hospitals with the long-term aim of improving health care in the region. In a country where there is a clear segregation of the sexes, it is important that Welthungerhilfe provides both male and female members of staff to advise the numerous groups. Female employees from Af- ghanistan are particularly obliged to stick to the rules: “When I go into the villages I always wear a bur- ka as a matter of principle,” stresses Welthungerhilfe’s project manager, an Afghan woman. “It’s important to convey the message that I’m not coming into the vil- lages in these remote project regions to lead local women astray.” WELTERNÄHRUNGSBERICHT _ TEIL II Ph ot o : C or du la K ro pk e Ph ot o: Ir is S ch ön in ge r The burka is very much a part of everyday life in rural areas. 36 The fi rst crop of roses harvested in the province of Nangahar. Roses may provide a genuine alternative to growing opium. GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II 37 5.6 | New perspectives: Roses instead of opium In order to generate alternatives to drug farming, Welthungerhilfe started a pilot project in the dis- tricts of Achin, Dari Noor and Nazian in 2004. Its aim: to produce Damascene roses for the extraction of rose-water and essence of roses. The plan is to sell high-quality essence of roses used for cosmetic pro- ducts on international markets in the future. The cul- tivation and processing of roses once used to be an important part of Afghan culture, but a great deal of knowledge was lost over the years of war. The cer- tifi cation of the essence of roses, which is extracted under strictly ecological criteria, should provide far- mers involved in the project with the opportunity of an attractive alternative income comparative to other agricultural products and thereby keep them from growing poppies. In the fi rst phase of this project, co-fi nanced by the GTZ (the German Association for Technical Colla- boration) with EU funds, 160 farmers planted roses on 0.2 hectares of land each. In the fi rst harvest of the year - which is really still at the test stage - 9,000 kg of rosebuds were harvested, leading to the distil- lation of 1.8 litres of essence of roses. Parallel to the period of growing the roses, contracts were signed to guarantee purchasers for the producers and deliveries for the distillery. At the same time, two distilleries for the extraction of essence of roses and rose-water were built in the villages of Dari Noor and Achin. A third is under construction. Since it will take two to three years for the rose crops to start bringing in a healthy revenue, farmers have received interim fund- ing to compensate for their loss of income during the transfer. To ensure that their food security is impro- ved, farmers are receiving vegetable seed for grow- ing intercrops in their fi elds as well as advice and guidance. Farmers involved in the project can already look back on initial successes: “By working on the rose project I can earn extra money,” explains Mogahidin from Pecha. “My brother and I have planted a jerib (0.2 hectares) with GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II roses and we’re sharing the profi ts. This year we had a to- tal of 120 kg rosebuds and we got 50 rupees per kilogram. The collection point is an hour away from here. I’ve been participating in the project for two years and it’s improved my life. We got the plants for free and we’re given advice on how to look after the roses. At the start my brother and I received 750 plants and about 600 of them are still alive. We have re- planted twice since then, but many died off anyway.12 Since we started growing roses we don’t need to produce our own wheat anymore. We can buy it on the market. Instead we plant vegetables amongst the roses. We eat them ourselves. We received the vegetable seeds from Welthungerhilfe.” Azim Khan from Mullakal has already made a small profi t: “I grow roses with my 18-year-old son, Muntiq. We started two years ago. We had a harvest for the fi rst time this year. Not a lot has changed because of it. Life is a bit better. In the old days we always used to grow maize and wheat. Now we grow vegetables at the same time as roses. The money we get for the roses is indispensable to buy clothes and medicine. This year we harvested 50 kg of rosebuds and earned 2,500 Pakistani rupees.” In the long-term, the plan is to carry out the project as a public private partnership in cooperation with a company. The success and widespread impact of the fi ght against poppy production is, however, to a large extent dependent on the enforcement of the prohibi- tion by the Afghan government. Mogahidin, a rose-grower, is optimistic that he can make a fresh start after returning from Pakistan. Ph ot o: Ir is S ch ön in ge r Ph ot os : b . M ic ha el Ö st er re ic h, t . K ai S tr ut ho ff 38 Many villages in Sierra Leone are still cut off from the outside world for months on end. The fi rst wells are repaired while people hope for swift progress in reconstruction. GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II 39 6. | Sierra Leone is gradually stabilising GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II Ph ot os : D W H H 6.1 | Food security takes precedence Years of civil war also devastated Sierra Leone.13 This West African country was the scene of armed con- fl ict for eleven years - from 1991 to 2002 - witnessing fi ghting between an increasingly unstable govern- ment and rebel groups supported by neighbouring Liberia. At least 75,000 of the country’s fi ve milli- on inhabitants died; 5,000 children assumed an active role in the hostilities; at least 50,000 women and girls were raped or abducted for slavery. This ex- tremely brutal war waged between the rebel organ- isation, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and the Sierra Leonean army was fi nanced by the diamond trade. A peace treaty was only signed after Sierra Le- one and the United Nations came to an agreement in 2002 and the establishment of a Special Court for the country was endorsed. Peacekeeping forces were withdrawn in 2005. Subsequently, a new basis for life had to be created for the approximately 1.5 million refugees returning home from neighbouring countries or from other parts of Sierra Leone, as well as for the 75,000 for- mer soldiers of the rebel army. The population is ex- pecting rapid progress. It’s therefore essential that, in the face of a still fragile peace, political and economic measures, as well as those taken for national securi- ty, have to be tied in closely with development poli- cy. High on the list of priorities is to make a marked improvement in the living conditions of the poverty- stricken population and to encourage them to play an active role in achieving this. As in Afghanistan, Welthungerhilfe’s current policy in Sierra Leone is therefore to promote capacity build- ing alongside short-term support for returning refu- gees through agricultural aid. Welthungerhilfe’s staff provide advice and guidance to individuals and local groups, e.g. offering training possibilities, advice on the effective use of the drinking water supply, and support in setting up new organisations. The civil war devastated most of the infrastructure. By the end of the war trade and particularly agricul- ture had been brought to a standstill. The Gross Na- tional Product fell by half in the 1990s, and by 2000 had reached a low point of US$142 per capita. Alt- hough since the end of 2000 there have been signs of 40 recovery from the years of economic decline during the civil war, Sierra Leone was still the penultimate country on the list of 177 countries in the UN’s Hu- man Development Index in 2005 (after having been last on the list in 2004). Economic growth is approx- imated at 7%. It’s estimated that the growth rate will be between 4.5 to 5% for the years 2006 and 2007. However, this is not enough to achieve a sustain- able economic upturn. Unemployment, particularly GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX _ PART II among the young, is prevalent. After decades of mis- management, widespread corruption, insuffi cient state control and a lack of investments – particularly in agriculture and mining (diamonds, gold) – Sier- ra Leone faces major political, economic and social challenges, above all in using the enormous poten- tial of the country for the benefi t of the population at large. Food security is a top priority on the government’s agenda. At the start of his second period in offi ce in May 2002, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah de- clared that he would do everything in his power to make sure that in fi ve years time no one in Sierra Leone would have to go to bed hungry.14 The natio- nal anti-poverty campaign is sub-titled: “A national programme for food security, creating jobs and good governance”. Development policy focuses on three areas: the promotion of good governance15 in con- nection with national security and peace, the pro- motion of sustainable growth for the benefi t of the poor, and the promotion of human development. In the face of the current situation the goals may be ambitious, but they are certainly a step in the right direction. 55-year-old Fatmata Gojo from Simbaru-Tawa- hun in the district of Kenema recalls the war and the arduous fresh star