A report by United Nations Development Programme says one in four sub-Saharan Africans, about 214 million people put together, goes hungry every day and warns that countries in the region cannot sustain current levels of economic growth without reaching out to their most marginalized inhabitants.
The UNDP Africa Human Development Report 2012:Towards a Food Secure Future, released on Tuesday, says “15 million of these
vulnerable people live in the drought-struck, semi-arid belt of Sahel, which
stretches across West and Central Africa. There, malnutrition
is threatening the lives of one million children”.
The report also states that more than a million
children in the Sahel region are at risk of dying because they don't have
enough to eat
Many sub-Saharan African countries have Gini index
measures between 0.35 and 0.6. The Gini index is a measure of income
inequality used by some economists. A score of “1” on the index indicates
perfect inequality (hypothetically all of the wealth is concentrated). A score
of “0” indicates perfect equality (hypothetically, all wealth is shared equally
among the population).
Niger, for example, has a Gini index of about 0.35,
Mali has a Gini coefficient of about 0.33 and Mauritania has an income
inequality level of about 0.41. All three countries are affected by the current
hunger crisis in the Sahel.
