The GHI ranked Pakistan at 99th position out of 121 countries surveyed….reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan score’s on Global Hunger Index (GHI) has dropped from 38.1 in 2006 to 26.1 in 2022, revealing the extent of the crisis that the gripped the country and its people, Dawn reported.
The Pakistan chapter of the Global Hunger Index (GHI) released the data on Tuesday. The GHI ranked Pakistan at 99th position out of 121 countries surveyed.
The GHI, in a statement, said armed conflicts, climate change, and the novel coronavirus pandemic combined to force as many as 828 million people to go hungry, Dawn reported.
“As things stand, 46 countries will not even achieve a low level of hunger by 2030, much less eliminate hunger entirely. In Africa, South of the Sahara and South Asia are once again the regions with the highest rates of hunger. South Asia, the region with the world’s highest hunger level, has the highest child stunting rate and by far the highest child wasting rate of any world region,” the GHI statement added.
The GHI is a pre-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide which aims to raise awareness of the struggle against hunger.
Aisha Jamshed, country director of Welthungerhilfe, said her organisation worked to assist food-insecure communities and build resilience in cooperation with the civil society, government and private sector.
Shafat Ali, director, Local Government and Community Development Department (LGCDD), Punjab, said he highlighted the issue to ensure citizens’ participation, action, and oversight, and consider the local context in the transformation of food systems, according to Dawn.
Stakeholders at all governance levels were urged to harness local voices and capacities.
Communities, civil society, small producers, farmers, and indigenous groups with their local knowledge and lived experiences should shape how access to nutritious food is governed, the report added.
Meanwhile, Pakistan government’s fiscal deficit is expected to narrow in the fiscal year 2024 from the previous year’s 7.9 per cent of gross domestic product, the federal government said in an economic report on Wednesday, Dawn reported.
Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper. The report attributed the reason “largely due to a 12 per cent reduction in non-markup spending”.
The report read: “With a decline in non-mark-up spending, the primary deficit has been narrowed down to Rs 112 billion during Jul-May FY23 from Rs 945.3 billion recorded last year.”
The Pakistan government also said that the current account deficit would remain within a sustainable limit and that Pakistan was gearing towards achieving “higher growth” of 3.5 per cent in FY24 due to various measures such as the agriculture package, industrial support, export promotion, encouragement of the IT sector and resource mobilisation, etc.
The report read: “To achieve higher and sustainable economic growth, it will require prudent and effective economic decisions, political and economic certainty, and continuation of friendly economic policies along with enough foreign exchange financing.”
The government had earlier estimated the 2024 fiscal deficit at 6.54 per cent in its annual budget presented in June, which according to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar could further improve after new taxation of Rs 215 billion, ahead of the country clinching a USD 3 billion IMF deal.
Wednesday’s report said annual inflation had declined to 29.4 per cent in June down from 38 per cent recorded in May.
The IMF deal helped avert a near-default by Pakistan on its foreign debt due to an acute balance of payment crisis, as per Dawn. (ANI)
