Bangladesh betters on hunger challenge

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Bangladesh betters on hunger challenge

Bangladesh has ranked sixth in combating hunger among 28 vulnerable countries this year, an ActionAid International study said.

The country -- this year's most successful in reducing hunger rate among the south Asian countries -- was in the 13th spot last year. Brazil, China, Vietnam, Malawi and Ghana are the top rankers in this year's scorecard for tackling hunger.

The study, however, said that Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of underweight children and does not have sufficient food to feed almost half its population.

Marking the World Food Day, ActionAid International published the scorecard in its UK based research titled "Who is Really Fighting Hunger". The ranking is decided on criteria such as hunger trends, legal framework, smallholder agriculture, social safety and gender equity.

Scoring 44 points, three points more than the last year, Bangladesh stands high above its neighbours Nepal (14th), India (21st) and Pakistan (25th) in the global scorecard.

"Bangladesh's rank reflects the progress it has made in reducing hunger from 36 percent to 26 percent since 1990," said the research.

The study, however, warned that Bangladesh has chances to lose the trend of hunger reduction, the primary Millennium Development Goal (MDG), due to the impact of food and financial crisis.

"Around 65.3 million Bangladeshis still do not have enough food. In addition to this, the rate of underweight children is the highest in South Asia and one of the highest in the world," the study revealed.

It mentioned that the country's food production would fall by 3.9 percent every year due to climate change.

It lauded the government for the budgetary allocations for the absolute poor through extended safety net programmes that partly cover nutrition, subsidised food and employment programmes.

Terming land a critical issue, the report suggested wide scale introduction of sustainable agriculture and land reform.

India, an emerging country in the world economy, ranked 21st in the ActionAid scorecard.

Nearly a quarter the world's starving population live in India with the number of the hungry increased by 53 million between 1990 and 2005, the report said, predicting that the country would not be able to half this hunger rate before 2083 -- nearly 70 years after the MDG target date.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Lesotho and Pakistan are the worst achievers in the hunger reduction chart.

Pakistan is reeling from massive floods. Its food situation continues to look deteriorating and the country is in need of a comprehensive system of social protection, the report said.

ActionAid called on the nations to increase investment in agriculture and smallholder farming at the national and international levels.

The United Nations will hold a summit next week on the Millennium Development Goals.

Bangladesh betters on hunger challenge

Under the Great Leadership of Hasina ji,I am sure BD will become Poverty free country very soon