Global Patterns: Nutrition Indicators (SL IB Geography)

• Food security is whether people have continuous access to a diet of sufficient quantity and quality to:
• Meet daily health needs
• Lead an active life

Four aspects of food security

• According to the World Bank, there are four main aspects of food security:
  1. Food availability - food production and trade in the supply sector
  2. Food access - financial or physical access to food at the household level
  3. The use of food - the way the body uses nutrients and energy is supported by food preparation, a balanced diet, and a proper diet
  4. Stability - consistency of the other 3 aspects over a period of time 

Global food security

• There is enough food globally to feed everyone on the planet
• There are issues with food insecurity all around the world, in both LICs and HICs
• Weather, war, issues with crop growth, poverty, changing population rates and our changing diets impact food security
• Different areas of the world have too much or too little food
• We use nutrition indicators to measure and demonstrate these differences around the world

Indicators of malnutrition

• Malnutrition occurs when a person isn’t consuming the correct nutrients to stay healthy. This can be a deficiency or surplus
• Malnutrition can cause:
  • Weight loss (or weight gain)
  • Stunted growth
  • Poor resistance to infection
  • Diseases e.g. Kwashiorkor, Marasmus
  • Brain development issues
• The indicators of malnutrition include: 
  • Stunted growth – height is smaller (with regard to age)
  • Wasting – weight is lower (with regard to height)
  • Undernutrition – not eating enough food (energy) over a year to meet dietary standards, resulting in:
    • Being underweight
    • Stunting and/or wasting in children 
    • Micronutrient deficiency 
  • Micronutrient-related malnutrition/overnutrition – excessive nutrient consumption, resulting in:
    • Being overweight
    • Obesity
    • Diet-related noncommunicable diseases, e.g. heart disease, cancer and diabetes
• Malnutrition can cause famine. Death occurs by starvation or deficiency-related diseases
• African, South Asian and South American countries have higher percentages of undernutrition 
• An anomaly is North Korea
  • Due to North Korea’s isolation, poor resource use and physical problems like natural disasters, undernutrition is high  

Patterns in levels of undernutrition in 2020

Patterns in levels of undernutrition in 2020

Food Security Index

• The Global Food Security Index (GFSI) measures food security using 68 indicators

 

The Four Categories of Indicators of Global Food Security Index

Category	Measured by
Affordability – the ability to afford food without issues,	Household expenditure in % Population below the Global Poverty Line in % GDP per capita Import tariffs Existence of food safety-net programmes  Financing for farmers
Availability – the supply of food	Sufficiency  Money spent on the agriculture industry (research and infrastructure)  Unpredictability and disruption Political stability e.g. corruption Loss of food  Urban carrying capacity
Quality and safety – average nutritional quality, variety of food and food safety,	Diet diversification  Protein quality Food safety Standards of nutrition  Availability of micronutrients
Sustainability and adaptation – understanding climate change and mitigation	Exposure to climate change Impacts of climate change  Natural resource risks Risk adaptation

• Each indicator is measured between 0–100 (100 being the best)
• The mean of each indicator provides the score for each category
• The overall score of the GFSI is the average of each category
• LICs have lower GFSI scores, whilst HICs and NEEs have higher scores
• Africa has the majority of lower-scoring GFSI countries 
• An anomaly is Syria 

The pattern of the Global Food Security Index in 2022

The pattern of the Global Food Security Index in 2022

The Global Hunger Index

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) measures the rates of hunger on different scales
• Three categories make up the GHI, with four indicators:
  • Inadequate food supply:
    • Undernourishment – how much of the population is undernourished (not consuming enough calories):
      • Measures both adults and children 
  • Child Mortality
    • Under-5 mortality – the number of deaths per 1000 births:
      • Measures the deaths caused by hunger in vulnerable groups
  • Child Undernutrition
    • Child stunting – children under 5 who are smaller (according to their age) as a result of chronic (longer periods of) undernutrition 
    • Child wasting – children under 5 who are underweight (according to their height) as a result of acute (shorter period) undernutrition: 
      • It looks at the quality and utilisation of food, not just calories
• The GHI measures hunger from 0–100 (Low–Extremely Alarming)
• Overall, GHI is declining
• In 2022, no country was in the “Extremely Alarming” category
• Africa and South Asia have more countries labelled as “Alarming”

The pattern of the Global Hunger Index in 2022

The pattern of the Global Hunger Index in 2022

Calories per person/capita

• Calorie measurement is how much energy a person consumes 
• It is measured using kilocalories per person per day 
• The standard calorie intake is 2000 for women and 2500 for men 
• Generally, HICs have a higher calorie consumption than LICs
• Reduced calorie consumption can result in: 
• Undernutrition 
• Malnutrition
• An increased likelihood of nutrition-related diseases
• Higher calorie consumption results in issues like obesity
• People in HICs may also experience malnutrition by:
• Being in poverty/under the poverty line
• Eating enough calories but not getting the correct/enough nutrients

The pattern of calories per person in 2018 (supply not consumption)

The pattern of calories per person in 2018 (supply not consumption)

Advantages and disadvantages of nutrition indicators

Nutrition indicator	Advantages	Disadvantages
Global Food Security Index	Has lots of components, taking into account different factors Sustainability and adaptation were added later, reflecting the effects of climate change on food security	Measurements may be inaccurate  Needs to take into account other factors, like cost of living, currency differences and inflation
The Global Hunger Index	Lots of components, taking into account different factors  Measures whether Sustainable Development Goals are being met	Some countries have no data e.g. malnutrition rates in Higher Income Countries may not cause high mortality rates Some countries’ data is provisional, due to a lack of information  Focuses mainly on children, yet the overall index figure assumes the entire population
Calories per person/capita	Simplistic measurement of general nutrition levels Quantitative measurement  Helps to show the level of development and food production efficiency	Isn’t enough on its own. Other indicators help to provide a bigger picture Ignores regional variations, demographic groups and yearly fluctuations Doesn’t include nutrients, just energy
Indicators of malnutrition	Useful for showing the effects of malnutrition Includes deficiency and excess	Doesn’t look at the causes or other socio-political factors