BOX 1.2 HOW GHI SCORES ARE CALCULATED


A country’s GHI score is calculated by averaging the percentage of the population that is undernourished, the percentage of children younger than five years old who are underweight, and the percent- age of children dying before the age of five. This calculation results in a 100-point scale on which zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 the worst, although neither of these extremes is reached in practice. A value of 100 would be reached only if all children died before their fifth birthday, the whole population was undernourished, and all children younger than five were underweight. A value of zero would mean that a country had no undernourished people in the population, no children younger than five who were underweight, and no children who died before their fifth birthday. The scale at the right shows the severity of hunger—from “low” to “extremely alarming”—associated with the range of possible GHI scores.


0 5 10


≤ 4.9


5.0 – 9.9


low


moderate


The GHI scores are based on source data that are continually revised by the United Nations agencies responsible for their compilation, and each year’s GHI report reflects these revisions. While these revisions result in improvements in the data, they also mean that the GHI scores from different years’ reports are not comparable with one another. This year’s report contains GHI scores for four other reference peri- ods—1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005—besides the most recent GHI, and so expands the scope of the trend analyses in comparison with pre- vious reports. The 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2013 GHI scores present-


ed in this report reflect the latest revised data for the three component indicators of the GHI.6


Where original source data were not available,


estimates for the GHI component indicators were used that are based on the most recent data available. (See Appendix A for more detailed background information on the data sources for and calculations of the 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2013 GHI scores.)


6


For previous GHI calculations, see von Grebmer et al. (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008); IFPRI/Welthungerhilfe/Concern (2007); Wiesmann (2006a, b); and Wiesmann, Weingärtner, and Schöninger (2006).


The three component indicators used to calculate the GHI scores in this report draw upon data from the following sources:


1. Undernourishment: Updated data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) were used for the 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005, and 2013 GHI scores. Undernourishment data for the 2013 GHI are for 2010–2012 (FAO 2013a; authors’ estimates). In order to provide more timely data that integrate all rel- evant information, the FAO has revised its methodology for estimat- ing undernourishment. Its estimates now consider findings from a much larger number of household surveys that have become avail- able in recent years and, for the first time, estimates of food losses at the retail level (FAO 2012).


2. Child underweight: The “child underweight” component indicator of the GHI scores in this report includes the latest additions to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, and additional data from the joint database by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), WHO, and the World Bank; the most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey reports; and statistical tables from UNICEF. For the 2013 GHI, data on child underweight are for the latest year for which data are available in the period 2008–2012 (WHO 2013; UNICEF/WHO/World Bank 2012; UNICEF 2013a, b; MEASURE DHS 2013; authors’ estimates).


8 The Concept of the Global Hunger Index | Chapter 01 | 2013 Global Hunger Index


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