GHI: 1 in 50 people in Estonia could be undernourished
According to the 2015 Global Hunger Index (GHI), published on Monday by the International Food Policy Research Institute, an estimated 2 percent of Estonia's population is undernourished.
GHI, now on its tenth year, provides a country-by-country snapshot of global hunger, this year with particular focus on the relationship between hunger and global conflict.
According to the results, hunger levels remain serious in 44 and alarming in 8 of 117 countries included in the report. The Central African Republic, Chad, and Zambia record the highest levels in this year's index. As a general rule, the worst-scoring countries tend to be those experiencing violent conflict and political instability.
On a more positive note, the hunger level in the developing world is down 27 percent, and 17 countries reduced their hunger by at least half since 2000. Yet, global hunger is a continuing challenge with one in nine people worldwide still chronically undernourished and one quarter of children too short for their age due to nutritional deficiencies. Moreover, about 3.1 million children die each year because of malnutrition.
In Estonia, the proportion of the undernourished in the population has dropped from 6.2 percent in 1995 to 2 percent in 2015. The rate is, however, even lower in Latvia and Lithuania - currently at 1.4 percent - both of which started with higher levels (7.7 and 9.3 percent respectively).
Whereas the under five mortality rate in Estonia is only 0.3 percent, the prevalence of wasting time in children under five years of age is estimated at 2.4 percent (down from 6.3 a decade ago) and that of stunting is 3.6 percent (down from 9.9 percent).
(Source: http://ghi.ifpri.org/)
Editor: M. Oll