Provisional Severity Designations for Countries with Incomplete Data

Because data for all four indicators in the GHI formula are not available for every country, GHI scores could not be calculated for some. However, where possible, countries with incomplete data are provisionally categorized according to the GHI Severity of Hunger Scale based on existing data and complementary reports (see Table below). Several of these countries are experiencing unrest or violent conflict, which affects the availability of data as well as the food security and nutrition situation in the country. It is possible that one or more of these countries would have a higher GHI score than Somalia—the country with the highest 2024 GHI score—if sufficient data were available.

In this year’s GHI report, 136 countries met the criteria for inclusion in the GHI, but 9 had insufficient data to allow for calculation of a 2024 GHI score. To address this gap and give a preliminary picture of hunger in the countries with missing data, provisional designations of the severity of hunger were determined based on several known factors (see Table below):

• those GHI indicator values that are available,

• the country’s last known GHI severity designation,

• the country’s last known prevalence of undernourishment,

• the prevalence of undernourishment for the subregion in which the country is located, and/or

• assessment of the relevant findings of the 2022, 2023, and 2024 editions of the Global Report on Food Crises (FSIN and GNAFC 2022, 2023, 2024).

For some countries, data are missing because of violent conflict or political unrest (FAO et al. 2017; Martin-Shields and Stojetz 2019), which are strong predictors of hunger and undernutrition. The countries with missing data may often be those facing the greatest hunger burdens. Of the two countries provisionally designated as alarming—Burundi and South Sudan—it is possible that with complete data, one or both of them would fall into the extremely alarming category.

Similarly, Lesotho might fall from serious to alarming. However, without sufficient information to confirm that this is the case, we have conservatively categorized these countries as alarming or serious.

In some cases even a provisional severity designation could not be determined, such as if the country had never previously had a prevalence of undernourishment value, GHI score, or GHI designation since the first GHI report was published in 2006. In the case of South Sudan, data were unavailable for two out of four GHI indicators. However, a review of the relevant information in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 editions of the Global Report on Food Crises as well as consultations with experts on food and nutrition insecurity in this country made clear that the designation of alarming was justified.