World hunger survey: RP 5th

The Philippines is fifth on the top 10 list of countries whose poor said they went hungry in the past year, an abs-cbnNEWS.com report said yesterday.

The report said that based on the results of the World Food Day survey by Gallup International-Voice of the People 2008, four of every 10 Filipinos reported having little or no food at all on their tables in the last 12 months.

This placed the Philippines in the league of African, Latin American, Asian and European countries whose citizens said that they “often or sometimes” lacked food in the past year.

The survey also said that the hunger rate was highest in Metro Manila, where at least 500,000 families lacked food.

The Philippines was in the league of African and Asian nations whose poor said they went hungry in the past year.

Cameroon topped the list at 55 percent, followed closely by Pakistan (53 percent) while Nigeria came third at 48 percent. Peru was fourth with 42 percent, followed by the Philippines.

Next came Latin American countries Bolivia and Guatemala, which were tied at 35 percent. Ghana was next at 32 percent while the rest of the top 10 spots were filled by Mexico and Russia (both 23 percent).

In terms of geography, Africa still topped the list of regions most affected by hunger.

“In this continent, close to five in 10 respondents (46 percent) declared they have not had enough to eat recurrently in the last year,” the survey analysis said.

Second spot went to Asia (20 percent) and Eastern and Central Europe (19 percent), while third place went to the Americas (14 percent Latin America, 13 percent North America).

Least affected was Western Europe at seven percent.

“It is shocking to see that still so many people don’t have enough to eat even in the most developed regions,” said Gallup secretary-general Meril James.

Gallup reflected a similar survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) for the third quarter of the year.

According to the Sept. 24-27 survey, the number of families who experienced hunger at least once in the past three months of the quarter rose to 18 percent or around 3.3 million homes.

“The latest hunger record is six points above the ten-year average of 12.3 percent, and is the highest in the four quarters after the record-high 21.5 percent in September 2007,” SWS said in its survey analysis.

The hunger average of 2008 is 16.8 percent, only slightly lower than the 2007 average of 17.9 percent.

The measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger as due to lack of anything to eat, SWS explained.

SWS said that based on the survey, more families experienced hunger in Metro Manila than anywhere else in the country.

“The proportion of households experiencing hunger has been highest in Metro Manila for the past two quarters, with the latest figure at 23.0 percent (estimated 560,000 families),” survey results said.

“It is now 20.0 percent (estimated 1.6 million families) in Balance Luzon, 18.3 percent (estimated 750,000 families) in Mindanao, and 11.7 percent (estimated 420,000 families) in the Visayas,” it added.

Survey results also showed that overall hunger rose significantly all over the country. It was at eight points in Luzon, from 12.3 percent in June; one point in Metro Manila (22-23 percent); and about one point in Mindanao (17.7 percent-18.3 percent).

Visayas, however, showed a decline of eight points, from 19.7 percent in June to 11.7 percent in the last survey.