A Global Hunger Index Report of 2023 has ranked Malawi at number 88 as a country that will face serious hunger as well as nutrition issues in 2023-2024 lean season.
This was highlighted on Wednesday during the launch of the report at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe.
The 2023 GHI report shows that Malawi is on number 88 out of 125, and the country continues to face challenges in food and nutrition security which translates that 5.2 million Malawians will face severe hunger in 2023-2024 lean season.
Commenting on the report, Minister of Youth and Sports, Uchizi Mkandawire said the government has out in place several mechanisms to address hunger issues such as introduction of mega farms to address issues of food security in the country.
“Let me commend the Concern World Wide and its partners for coming up with the report which highlights that Malawi ranks number 88 out of 125 countries to face hunger in the lean season affecting about 5.2 million people in the country.
“However, the government has various interventions such as implementation of mega farming projects to improve food security issues in the country. The report also underscores the importance of youth in shaping food security and indeed we are doing all we can to ensure the youths are involved and that their voices are heard,” said Mkandawire
Welt Hunger Hilfe Head of Programmes in Malawi, Claudia Plock said Malawi needs to take action to improve food systems in the country by among others ensuring that youths are involved in agricultural production saying the youths have the potential to support food systems transformation at community level.
One of the Youth from Twafwane Youth Club in Chitipa, Edward Kabuye said they are doing a lot in agriculture to improve nutrition and combat food insecurity levels at community level.
Kabuye decried lack of support at district level saying this is affecting them to go extra mile and reach out to many people in the district and the country as a whole.
The Global Hunger Index Report was released with a consortium of four organizations such as Concern Worldwide, Civil Society Nutrition Alliance (CSONA), Civil Society Agricultural Network, (CISANET) and Welt Hunger Hilfe (WHH) with the theme ‘the power of Youth in shaping food systems’.
By Leonard Masauli
