By Suliaman T. Jalloh
On Thursday, 20th February,2025, Welt Hunger Hilfe and its partners organized the launch of the Global Hunger Index 2024. This event was held at the Bintumani Conference Hall and captured the attention of key stakeholders including Government officials, development partners, and civil society representatives.
The theme of the event was: ‘How Gender justice can Advance Climate resilance with zero hunger’.
The event hosted by Welthungerhilfe & Concern Worldwide marked a crucial step in SierraLeone’s fight against hunger and malnutrition.The Global Index serves as mirror, reflecting where we stand in the fight against hunger.
Speaking during the auspicious ceremony, Welthungerhilfe Country Director, Mr Emmanuel octave Bananeza, said that the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI) annual report highlights how the hunger levels remain serious or alarming in 42 countries, with little progress made so far in tackling it since 2016.
He pointed out that six countries including Somalia, Yemen, Chad, Madagascar, Burundi, and South Sudan—are experiencing widespread human misery, undernourishment, and malnutrition, with the highest GHI scores.
Additionally, conflicts, such as the wars in Gaza and Sudan, have triggered severe food crises and ongoing civil strife continues to drive hunger in other regions, including Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali, and Syria,
Zuzana Brehova, Head of Programmes at Welthungerhilfe, gave a snapshot of the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI) Annual Report, focusing on Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Brehova said: “The Global Hunger Index is a tool that measures hunger in a multidimensional way, using four key indicators to provide a comprehensive picture of the global hunger situation”, intimating how the report paints a bleak picture of the prospects for achieving Zero Hunger by 2030.
She described the progress so far in tackling hunger as considerably slow due to a series of overlapping crises that hit the world’s poorest countries and worsening structural inequalities. The fundamental Human Rghts to adequate food is being ignored by those in power, despite international law, she added, furthering that Gender inequality, food insecurity, and climate change are converging, putting immense pressure on households, communities, and entire nations.
“Women and girls are disproportionately affected, suffering not only from food insecurity and malnutrition but also from climate-related disasters. Gender justice is essential for building climate resilience and ensuring food and nutrition security”, she continued, intimating that achieving Gender Justice requires recognizing people’s diverse needs and vulnerabilities, redistributing resources and labor fairly, and ensuring that women have a voice in decision-making at all levels.
Policies on climate, nutrition, and food systems should be grounded in human rights and international law, with a strong focus on equity and justice, she added, underscoring that little progress has been made in reducing hunger since 2016.
The global goal of eradicating hunger by 2030 looks increasingly out of reach, with 42 countries still facing serious or alarming levels of hunger. The world’s 2024 GHI score stands at 18.3, a marginal improvement from 18.8 in 2016, but still classified as “moderate.”
In 22 countries with moderate, serious, or alarming GHI scores, hunger has actually increased since 2016. In another 20 countries, progress has stalled. At the current rate of improvement, at least 64 countries will fail to reach even low hunger levels by 2030—let alone achieve Zero Hunger. In fact, if progress continues at the same slow pace as seen since 2016, the world will not reach even low hunger levels until the year 2160, she pointed out.
In his Keynote speech, the Deputy Minister II of Agriculture, Sahr Hamore, expressed his enthusiasm for being part of the event, further stating that the latest GHI places the world’s overall hunger level in the moderate range with a score of 18.3.
The Minister said even some improvement had been made in tackling hunger globally since 2016, but that is not enough to meet the global goal of achieving Zero Hunger by 2030.
He added that in many parts of the world—particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, conflicts, severe climate events, and economic hardships continue to threaten the progress made so far in Tackling hunger and not to talk about Child mortality and undernourishment which remain serious concerns, especially in vulnerable regions.
In Sierra Leone, the 2024 GHI score stands at 31.2, which he classified as serious because this figure highlights the country ongoing challenges in tackling hunger.
The Minister stated that under President Bio leadership, there has been significant improvement in tackling hunger as compared to what obtained in the past Two decades ago.
He highlighted the strides made so far in local food production, and other programs by the Bio’s Government to combat undernutrition, and strengthened various aspects of the country food system.
He referenced the Feed Salone Program implemented by President Julius Maada Bio as a way to combat hunger, explaining about its benefit which aimed at boosting local food production, reduce dependency on imports, improving nutrition; Expanding local production of staple crops like rice and onions and providing farmers with improved seeds, mechanized tools, and timely advisory support.
He also stressed on one of the programmes major priorities which is to improve child nutrition, citing the school feeding program which has benefitted thousands of school going kids.
