Uganda: In the district of Luwero, Ali Sonko assists his neighbor, Fatuma Oluke, in organising workers and tools for agriculture through a local online platform. Uganda is among the countries which saw improvements in GHI.
Photo: Papashotit/ Welthungerhilfe
Time to recommit to zero hunger
In 2005, when Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide jointly presented the Global Hunger Index for the first time, 788 million people – that was 12 per cent of the world population – were suffering hunger. Today, world-wide, 673 million people, roughly 8 per cent of the world population, do not have access to sufficient amounts of calories. Progress behind these numbers above all stems from improvements in Latin America and Southeast Asia. And most of them were achieved before 2016. Since then, combating hunger has come to a stillstand, and progress made in some countries is cancelled out by stagnation or regression in others. This is reported in what is now the 20th Global Hunger Index (GHI), which was presented by Welthungerhilfe together with Concern Worldwide and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) at Ruhr University Bochum on the occasion of World Food Day.
A deadly mixture of conflict, climate stress and economic shocks
The main drivers of hunger continue to be violent conflicts, which triggered almost 20 food crises last year, hitting almost 140 million people. In 2024, compared to 2023, at 2 million people, the number of people threatened by acute famine almost doubled, with 95 per cent of the people affected living in Gaza und Sudan.
Climate change continues to be the second chief driver of hunger. In many countries, droughts and floods have long ceased to be episodic weather extremes, but represent constant threats – such as in Pakistan, where the province of Punjab recently suffered the worst flood disaster in its history. Such extreme weather events destroy food systems and the food base of millions of people, Welthungerhilfe President Marlehn Thieme stressed when presenting the GHI in Berlin, Germany. Moreover, conflict and climate stress are frequently joined by economic shocks as further drivers of hunger.
Improvements called for in the German Federal Budget
The Welthungerhilfe President sharply criticised that in these times of aggravated food crises, finance to eliminate hunger was being cut world-wide, especially in the USA, but also in Europe, including Germany. “We call on the Federal Government to amend the 2026 Budget in this respect,” she stressed. In concrete terms, the humanitarian aid budget, which had already been halved in the recently approved 2025 Federal Budget, ought to be raised to 2.5 billion euros. The budget of the German Federal Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) was causing concern, too, Thieme noted, given that BMZ finance for food security had already dropped by one third in the budget from 2022 to 2024 and further cuts were planned.
Data matter
Mathias Mogge, Welthungerhilfe General Secretary, pointed out the importance of reliable data, especially in identifying long-term developments in people’s food situation and in effectively overcoming hunger. Here too, cuts were making themselves felt sharply, above all through the winding up of the USA’s USAID agency, for these cuts also effect funding for reporting systems and early warning systems, Mogge stressed.
Some GHI key facts
- Hunger is still concerned serious in 35 countriesand alarming in 7 countries: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Yemen, Madagascar, Somalia and South Sudan. At 42.6, Somalia has the highest GHI score of all countries.
- In 27 countries with low, moderate, serious or alarming 2025 GHI scores, hunger has increased since 2016.
- In 10 countries with moderate, serious or alarming 2025 GHI scores, progress has largely stalled.
- South Asia is home to 36 per cent of undernourished people world-wide, and here, the hunger situation continues to be serious. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, the situation has deteriorated since 2016.
- Sub-Saharan Africa continues to experience the highest levels of hunger, which is classified as a serious threat.
- The crisis in Democratic Republic of the Congo is among the most severe in the region: here, 38 per cent of the population are undernourished; just below half of all children (44 %) show stunting.
- Sudan is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. In Darfur, in the country’s west, fighting which flared up again in 2023, is being conducted with extreme brutality. More than ten million people are now fleeing the conflict, and nearly 25,000 people face acute food insecurity, while 700,000 are threatened with starvation.
- The food situation in Gaza continues to be catastrophic. Here, following the ceasefire’s entering into force on the 10th October, the relief organisations call for a swift opening of the borders and security guarantees for relief deliveries.
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) categorises and ranks countries on a 100-point scale (0 = zero hunger) and breaks their hunger situation down into five categories: low, moderate, serious, alarming and extremely alarming.
GHI scores are based on a formula that captures three dimensions of hunger – insufficient caloric intake (undernourishment), child undernutrition, and child mortality – using four component indicators:
- Undernourishment: the share of the population that is undernourished, reflecting insufficient caloric intake
- Child wasting: the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (low weight-for-height), reflecting acute undernutrition
- Child stunting: the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (low height-for-age), reflecting chronic under-nutrition;
- Child mortality: the mortality rate of children under the age of five.
The 2025 global GHI score 2025 is 18.3, which is regarded as moderate. This value is only slightly below the 2016 value (19.0).
Data from various UN and other multilateral organisations for 136 countries was evaluated for the 2025 GHI. The GHI scores are based on the most up-to-date data available for the underlying indicators for each country.
A matter of political will
“Hunger remains the biggest problem of our times. However, it can be solved,” said Thieme. It is solvable provided that enough political will is there and determined action is taken, that there is sufficient finance, and that strategies are conceived for the long term and are above all well-coordinated, and that local communities are integrated in the strategies and are strengthened.
She referred to the examples of countries such as Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Togo und Uganda, in which the population’s food situation had improved despite the crises of the past decade (even though hunger continues to be worryingly high especially in Mozambique and Somalia). Here, developments benefited from a combination of social security measures, training programmes and credit schemes in rural areas. Or Nepal, where the right to food has been enshrined in the country’s constitution; on this basis, national food security strategies have been established in conjunction with improvements in the health system, including in maternal and child healthcare.
Zero hunger remains target
GHI 2025 also reviews 20 years of policy recommendations to overcome hunger and how they evolved over time. In a nutshell, given today’s challenges, three recommendations for action are at the forefront: promoting sustainable, climate-resilient food systems through adequate, flexible, and accountable financing from diversified sources, provided that nobody is left behind; strengthening national-level political commitment and prioritising localised implementation, while establishing inclusive accountability mechanisms; and breaking the cycle of conflict and hunger while ensuring that hunger is not used as a weapon. Regarding Sustainable Development Goal 2, which appears to be moving more and more out of reach, it is not without reason that this year’s GHI slogan is “Time to recommit to zero hunger”.
Silvia Richter, editor, Rural 21
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