Bangladesh has slumped to 73th place in this year's Global Hunger Index, showing a significant decline in hunger levels along with other South Asian neighbours.
The country ranked 57 in 2014 GHI.
According to the 2015 GHI released on Monday by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh is still suffering from “alarming level of hunger” with the score 27.3.
However, the country made a notable progress than its next-door neighbours India and Pakistan in fighting hunger.
The 2015 GHI combines four component indicators –undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality — to count the scores, and rank countries on a 100-point scale in which zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 the worst.
The 2015 GHI has been calculated for 117 countries for which data on the four component indicators are available and where measuring hunger is considered most relevant. GHI scores are not calculated for some higher-income countries where the prevalence of hunger is very low.
The index shows that the level of hunger in developing countries as a group has fallen by 27%. However, the state of hunger in the world remains serious, adds the report.
Take a look: Bangladesh moves 10 steps up in hunger index
Levels of hunger are alarming or serious in 52 countries. Most of the eight countries with alarming GHI scores are in Africa south of the Sahara.
While no countries are classified in the extremely alarming category this year, this high level of hunger could still exist, noted the author of the report, Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation.
Due to insufficient data, 2015 GHI scores could not be calculated for places that recently suffered from high levels of hunger, includeing Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
From the 2000 GHI to the 2015 GHI, 17 countries reduced their scores by 50% or more.
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) was first released by International Food Policy Research Institute and Welthungerhilfe in 2006. Since then it has been published with updated data each year.
