MINSK, 15 January (BelTA) - Belarus has one of the lowest malnutrition rates among developing countries both in Eastern Europe and the CIS, and worldwide. These findings come from the 2015 Global Hunger Index (GHI) report released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
According to the report, in 2015 the proportion of undernourished in Belarus was only 0.8%, prevalence of wasting and stunting in children under five years were 2.2% and 3.7% respectively, and the under five mortality did not exceed 0.5%. The 2015 GHI Score for Belarus is <5. This is one of the lowest scores among 117 countries covered in the ranking.
Tajikistan tops former Soviet republics in malnutrition with the GHI score of 30.3. According to experts, more than 33% of the population is undernourished there.
The GHI Score of Latvia and Lithuania is <5, the same as Belarus. Russia's GHI Score is <6.6.
The authors of the report note that the situation in the world has improved over the last decade: 85 countries cut hunger by at least 25%. However, the state of hunger is still serious or alarming in 52 countries. The worst hunger is in Africa south of the Sahara and in South Asia.
Global Hunger Index has been calculated each year by the International Food Policy Research Institute since 2006. The International Food Policy Research Institute is a non-for-profit organization headquartered in Washington, the United States. The institute is among 15 research centers of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The GHI ranks countries on a 100-point scale. Zero is the best score (no hunger), and 100 is the worst, although neither of these extremes is reached in practice.
117 countries in the report are divided into five groups depending on the GHI scale. Scores of 9.9 or lower denote low hunger, while scores between 35 and 49.9 denote alarming hunger.
