According to the World Food Programme, there are 815 million people that still go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Though the facts might be hard to read, understanding the increase of hunger on humanity is understanding many global political factors. Using the statistics from OurWorldInData.org and other NGOs, there are more than 30 countries with the most severe undernourishment. Today, we will talk about the top eleven undernourished countries based on the malnourishment rates of nations worldwide.
1. Central African Republic (CAR): CAR is known to be the hungriest country globally. Half of its population suffers from hunger. CAR “has been suffering from instability, ethnic violence, and conflict since 2012”. This has disrupted food production and caused the displacement of more than one million people. CAR has the highest rate of malnutrition at 61.8 percent.
2. Zimbabwe: The combination of the economic crisis and the devastating drought from October to May resulted in a malnutrition rate of 46.6 percent in Zimbabwe. Approximately 5.5 million people will require food aid by 2020. More than two million people are already facing severe famine.
3.Haiti: Haiti has experienced hurricanes, floods, political instability, and earthquakes that explain its high level of famine. Approximately 22% of children are chronically malnourished, and 66% of children under five are anemic. Half of Haiti’s 10.7 million people are undernourished. The malnutrition rate in Haiti is 45.8 percent.
4. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: More than 10 million people, about 40% of the population, need “emergency food aid”. Due to the drought experienced in early spring, the country’s crops have experienced “dry spells” and “heat waves”, leaving one in five children stunted.
5. Zambia: The 2001-2002 drought led Zambia into a “massive food deficit” that affected more than 2.3 million households dependent on rural agriculture. About 58 percent of the population is “classified as extremely poor,” hungry and food insecure. About 25% of children under five are underweight, and 6% are severely malnourished.
6. Madagascar: Due to extreme weather conditions, long droughts, and locust attacks, 1.4 million people in Madagascar are in a food crisis. At least 43.1% of its population is undernourished. Deforestation is another major problem since 85% of its tropical forests have disappeared due to “agricultural practices of cooking and burning”.
7. Uganda: Due to land eviction problems, provision of false seeds, and problematic farming methods, the malnutrition rate in Uganda is 41%. More than 1.6 million Ugandans are in a food crisis. Approximately 82% of malnourished children go untreated, leading to many other health problems. About 15% of “all child mortality cases” in the country are related to undernutrition.
8. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): The food situation in the DRC is so severe that people resort to prostitution and join the armed forces to earn money. Because of the problems related to the conflict, about 15 million people in the country are suffering from hunger. This is more than 7.7 million people in 2017.
9. Republic of Yemen: Yemen has a malnutrition rate of 39%. More than 2 million children suffer from malnutrition. In Yemen, food insecurity is due to “large-scale displacement, high food prices, endemic poverty and the influence of refugees and migrants”.
10. Chad: Chad has suffered from “political instability, social unrest and conflict” since its independence in 1960. Also, successive droughts and erratic rains have resulted in poor harvests. The 2018 national nutrition survey indicates that global acute malnutrition stands at 13.5 percent, of which 4 percent is severe malnutrition. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that approximately 4.5 million people face food insecurity.
11. Liberia: Liberia is still on the list of the ten hungriest countries after its entry in 2019, but the food insecurity is way too long since 1989 to 2003 civil war. There is approximately 16% Liberian families are insecured concerning food and the pandemic caused more problem as the economic losses caused pain to families with starvation.