Kenya has ranked 84th in the 2020 Global Hunger Index (GHI) with a score of 23.7. This is according to a report released by Welthungerhilfe one of the largest private aid organisations in Germany. The organisation has further explained that the index which was determined from data collected in 107 countries across the globe, shows that the level of hunger in the country is ‘serious’.
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is designed
to measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels with data
being obtained through the efforts of UN and other multilateral agencies.
Expectedly, the overlapping disasters of 2020 have led to
economic and health-related hardships across the globe, hampering food security
for millions by disrupting agricultural production, the availability of food,
and people’s ability to obtain and utilize food, with most of the pressure
being felt by those living in poverty.
According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the
events of 2020 are laying bare many of the vulnerabilities of the world’s food
system, revealing that they are inadequate for coping with the kinds of
overlapping global and regional crises.
With agriculture, fisheries, and forestry forming a vital
part of Kenya’s economy, the country’s farmers have faced major challenges. These
are a result of rapid population growth which has reduced the average size of
land parcels available to each farmer.
Additionally, efforts to control the fall armyworm that have
been destroying staple crops across Africa were complicated by COVID-19
restrictions.
With more than 80 percent of Kenya falling under arid or
semiarid land, and 95 percent of crops being rain-fed, extreme weather imposed
heavy burden on the food production and supply chain.
Despite ranking 84th, the country’s poverty rate falls
below the average for Sub-Saharan Africa and is making headway on reducing the
share of its population living in poverty.
For this to happen, FAO recommends that the production and supply of food must
be classified as essential services, and safe working environments guaranteed.
The organisation further emphasises that governments and
citizens must also prepare now to ensure all required inputs are available for
the next and subsequent planting seasons. Aligning support for agricultural
production by smallholder farmers, reducing food dumping, using cash and
voucher assistance whenever feasible, and promoting the effective use of
perishable food will require intersectoral coordination among governments,
nongovernmental organizations, and community-based entities working
collaboratively under as a common agenda.
The GHI scores are based on the values
of four component indicators: undernourishment (share of the population with
insufficient caloric intake), child wasting (share of children under age five
who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition), child
stunting (share of children under age five who have low height for their age,
reflecting chronic undernutrition), and child mortality (mortality rate
of children under age five, partly
reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments).
