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Bangladesh continues to make progress in the fight against hunger and malnutrition in South Asia, outperforming India and Pakistan in the 2026 Global Hunger Index (GHI), according to the report.
Experts attribute Bangladesh’s progress to several key initiatives, including expanding employment opportunities for women, extending community clinics and grassroots healthcare services, improving sanitation and increasing access to education for girls.
Bangladesh scored 19.2 on the index, placing it in the moderate hunger category. India scored 24.1, while Pakistan recorded 25.5, indicating more severe hunger conditions in both countries. Sri Lanka and Nepal performed better than Bangladesh among South Asian nations.
The Global Hunger Index measures hunger using four key indicators: undernourishment among the population, child mortality, child stunting — when children are too short for their age — and child wasting, or low weight relative to height.
The 2026 report was jointly published by Welthungerhilfe, a German organisation working to combat hunger; HELVETAS, a Swiss development organisation; and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany.
The GHI uses a scale ranging from zero to 100, with lower scores indicating better outcomes. Scores below 10 indicate low hunger, while scores from 10 to 19.9 represent moderate hunger. Scores between 20 and 34.9 indicate serious hunger, those from 35 to 49.9 signify alarming hunger, and scores of 50 or above represent extremely alarming conditions.
Under this classification, Bangladesh’s score of 19.2 places it near the upper end of the moderate hunger category, while India and Pakistan fall into the serious hunger category.
The report highlights the importance of healthcare access, education, sanitation and women’s economic participation in improving food security and nutritional outcomes.
Bangladesh’s expansion of community-based healthcare services has helped bring essential medical care closer to rural communities. Greater access to education for girls and opportunities for women to earn an income have also been identified as important contributors to social development.
Pakistan, meanwhile, continues to face several challenges affecting food security, including rising food prices, child malnutrition, limited employment opportunities for women, inadequate investment in healthcare and education, and climate-related disasters.
The index underscores the continuing differences in hunger and nutrition outcomes across South Asia and the need for sustained investment in public health, education, sanitation and resilient food systems.
