Friday 22 / November / 2024
Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman is fourth in the Arab world in the Global Food Security Index for the year 2021, affiliate of the Economist Impact.
According to the latest data on the Global Food Security Index for the year 2021, affiliated with the Economist Impact, the Sultanate of Oman ranked fourth on the Arab food security index and 40 globally.
The 2021 GFSI is the 10th edition published by The Economist Impact that updates the model annually to capture annual changes in structural factors affecting food security. Where Qatar topped the highest score on the Arab food security index with a score of 73.6 and Ireland was in the first place in the world with a score of 84.0. The index measures the basic issues of food security across 113 countries.
The state of Kuwait ranked second in the Arab world, followed by the United Arab Emirates, while Bahrain ranked fifth, followed by Saudi Arabia.
The 2021 GFSI is the 10th edition published by The Economist Impact that updates the model annually to capture annual changes in structural factors affecting food security.
The Global Food Security Index (GFSI) takes into account affordability issues across several metrics, namely food cost, availability, quality and safety, natural resources and resilience in 113 countries based on 58 unique indicators that measure drivers of food security in both developing and developed countries.
After making rapid gains in the first few years of its inception, GFSI scores peaked across all countries in 2019, before declining over the past two years amid the coronavirus pandemic, conflict and climate variability.
Increased volatility in food prices since 2019 has affected the cost of food, with 70 countries falling in the index rankings for this year due to higher costs.
The indicator shows that countries without comprehensive and well-funded national food safety net programmes have higher levels of hunger. They follow diets that lack quality protein and micronutrients, and have limited access to drinking water. Among the Arab countries that were the worst on the index globally and in the Arab world are Yemen, Sudan and Syria.
