Resource detail

The Hunger And Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI) has been created with the objective of developing a credible measure that helps focus support and pressure for change. With this in mind, the HANCI ranks governments on their political commitment to tackling hunger and under nutrition; measures what governments achieve and where they fail in addressing hunger and under nutrition; praises governments where due, and highlights areas for improvement; supports civil society to reinforce and stimulate additional commitment towards accelerating the reduction of hunger and under nutrition; and assesses whether improving commitment levels leads to a reduction in hunger and under nutrition. The index compares 45 developing countries in terms of their performance on 22 indicators of political commitment to reduce hunger and under nutrition in 2012. The three areas of government action it looks at include policies and programs; legal frameworks; and public expenditure. Separately, it measures commitment to reduce hunger and commitment to reduce under nutrition, noting that ‘hunger and under nutrition are not the same thing’. Finally, the report states that the relative commitment to hunger reduction does not predict the relative commitment to nutrition, as demonstrated by the divergent performance of countries such as Nepal, South Africa and Mali. The report concludes that the existence of a commitment score not only helps civil society hold governments to account but also helps to guide resource allocation within and across countries.