When Numbers Cannot Cry
A baby was born at 3:17 am in a village clinic in the Tigray region, Ethiopia. The baby's breath was short. The eyes were weak — not from exhaustion, but from the mother's low blood glucose levels for the past 47 days. When the baby first breastfed, the milk that came out of the mother's breast was not white or yellowish, but a cloudy pink. Not because of injury. Not because of infection. But because the capillaries in the mammary glands burst due to extreme metabolic pressure: the mother's body broke down its own tissue to survive — and blood seeped into the milk flow.
This is one of the unmeasured images in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) — an annual index that has been the main benchmark for world hunger for 19 years.
The Unmeasured Suffering
GHI is not just a number. It is a combination of four indicators: the prevalence of hunger (undernourishment), low body weight in children under five years old (wasting), stunting, and mortality in children under five years old. Each number is calculated with a strict formula, calibrated between 0 (no hunger) and 100 (extreme hunger). But behind the score of 48.2 for Somalia in 2024 — which is categorized as 'serious hunger' — there is no room to tell the story of how a mother in Mogadishu divides one bowl of boiled rice among her three children… then withholds her hunger until her vision blurs while breastfeeding.
GHI was born in 2006 from the collaboration of IFPRI and Welthungerhilfe — a revolutionary initiative at the time. But this revolution has a gap: it measures outcomes, not processes. It records how many children are malnourished — but does not record how many times a father walks 32 km just to exchange a used blanket for a handful of corn. It counts infant mortality — but does not count how many hours an infant cries before their breath stops, while the mother sits silently, out of tears and milk.
The Interactive Map that Cannot Hear Screams
Every October, the GHI report is released with an interactive map that is mesmerizing: green represents progress, yellow is a warning, red is danger, and purple — specifically for 17 countries with a score ≥50 — indicates 'extreme hunger'. But this map cannot hear the voice of a mother in Yemen who fries dry leaves with used cooking oil from three days ago, then serves it as 'protein soup' for her toothless child.
What is even more haunting: in 2025, GHI will include a new component — the food insecurity experience scale (FIES) based on direct surveys from households. This means that for the first time, the index will ask: 'In the past 12 months, have you skipped meals because you didn't have money?' or 'Have you eaten food that is not fit to eat to survive?' These questions are not statistics. They are a doorway to a dark bedroom, where a teenage girl in South Sudan rolls up her blanket twice to make it look like she is eating — just to calm her growling stomach in front of her siblings.
Who is Missing from the Score?
GHI measures countries — not communities. It calculates averages — not margins. So, when Malaysia's score is reported as 'low' (8.9 in 2024), it is not visible that in the interior of Sarawak, 63% of indigenous children still experience stunting due to limited access to nutritious food — not because of absolute poverty, but because the distribution system ignores rivers as the main road.
And when Indonesia is in the 'moderate' position (24.0), it is not recorded that in Nusa Tenggara Timur, a 72-year-old grandmother still eats wild tubers every morning — not because of tradition, but because subsidized rice arrives in her village three months after schedule, and has rotten in the warehouse.
When Academia Meets Blood in the Breast
In 2024, IFHV — the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict — joined as an academic partner of GHI. This decision is not symbolic. It is an acknowledgment that hunger is no longer just a matter of food shortages — but a matter of structural human rights violations. That a child born with a weight of 1.8 kg in Gaza is not just a victim of 'undernutrition', but a victim of a blockade sanctioned by UN resolutions but never implemented.
And that is why GHI 2025 is not just a report. It is the first forensic document that links hunger scores to data on armed conflict, agrarian policies, and even extreme weather patterns triggered by climate change — all in one analytical framework that can no longer be hidden behind bar graphs.
The Numbers that Must Bleed
This morning, in a clinic in Chad, a midwife records the MUAC (mid-upper arm circumference) score of a baby: 10.8 cm. Below the threshold of 11.5 cm — which means severe wasting. She enters the number into the national GHI system. But she also writes an additional note in her personal diary:
'This baby breastfeeds 7 times a night — but the mother only drinks sugarless tea since yesterday. The milk is pink. I don't know who to report this to.'
That is the point where numbers stop being data — and start being testimony. And maybe, only when GHI dares to include notes like this in its report, will the index really stop being a measurement tool… and start being a voice for those who are never invited to speak in high-level meetings.
Because hunger is not a number that goes up and down. It is a heartbeat that slows down — slowly, silently, and unheard until it's too late.
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Reference: Global Hunger Index — Wikipedia
These Countries Are Classified as 'Serious' — But Newborns There Still Drink Blood-Tinged Breast Milk. Amid annual reports classifying dozens of countries as 'hunger crises', one horrifying fact is rarely mentioned: in places with the worst GHI scores, breast milk is sometimes mixed with blood — not due to disease, but because of months of empty stomachs. Why does the global hunger measurement system still fail to capture the real suffering? And why is the 2025 figure even more haunting than all previous versions?.
When Numbers Cannot Cry
A baby was born at 3:17 am in a village clinic in the Tigray region, Ethiopia. The baby's breath was short. The eyes were weak — not from exhaustion, but from the mother's low blood glucose levels for the past 47 days. When the baby first breastfed, the milk that came out of the mother's breast was not white or yellowish, but a cloudy pink. Not because of injury. Not because of infection. But because the capillaries in the mammary glands burst due to extreme metabolic pressure: the mother's body broke down its own tissue to survive — and blood seeped into the milk flow.
This is one of the unmeasured images in the Global Hunger Index GHI — an annual index that has been the main benchmark for world hunger for 19 years.
The Unmeasured Suffering
GHI is not just a number. It is a combination of four indicators: the prevalence of hunger undernourishment , low body weight in children under five years old wasting , stunting, and mortality in children under five years old. Each number is calculated with a strict formula, calibrated between 0 no hunger and 100 extreme hunger . But behind the score of 48.2 for Somalia in 2024 — which is categorized as 'serious hunger' — there is no room to tell the story of how a mother in Mogadishu divides one bowl of boiled rice among her three children… then withholds her hunger until her vision blurs while breastfeeding.
GHI was born in 2006 from the collaboration of IFPRI and Welthungerhilfe — a revolutionary initiative at the time. But this revolution has a gap: it measures outcomes , not processes . It records how many children are malnourished — but does not record how many times a father walks 32 km just to exchange a used blanket for a handful of corn. It counts infant mortality — but does not count how many hours an infant cries before their breath stops, while the mother sits silently, out of tears and milk.
The Interactive Map that Cannot Hear Screams
Every October, the GHI report is released with an interactive map that is mesmerizing: green represents progress, yellow is a warning, red is danger, and purple — specifically for 17 countries with a score ≥50 — indicates 'extreme hunger'. But this map cannot hear the voice of a mother in Yemen who fries dry leaves with used cooking oil from three days ago, then serves it as 'protein soup' for her toothless child.
What is even more haunting: in 2025, GHI will include a new component — the food insecurity experience scale FIES based on direct surveys from households. This means that for the first time, the index will ask: 'In the past 12 months, have you skipped meals because you didn't have money?' or 'Have you eaten food that is not fit to eat to survive?' These questions are not statistics. They are a doorway to a dark bedroom, where a teenage girl in South Sudan rolls up her blanket twice to make it look like she is eating — just to calm her growling stomach in front of her siblings.
Who is Missing from the Score?
GHI measures countries — not communities. It calculates averages — not margins. So, when Malaysia's score is reported as 'low' 8.9 in 2024 , it is not visible that in the interior of Sarawak, 63% of indigenous children still experience stunting due to limited access to nutritious food — not because of absolute poverty, but because the distribution system ignores rivers as the main road.
And when Indonesia is in the 'moderate' position 24.0 , it is not recorded that in Nusa Tenggara Timur, a 72-year-old grandmother still eats wild tubers every morning — not because of tradition, but because subsidized rice arrives in her village three months after schedule, and has rotten in the warehouse.
When Academia Meets Blood in the Breast
In 2024, IFHV — the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict — joined as an academic partner of GHI. This decision is not symbolic. It is an acknowledgment that hunger is no longer just a matter of food shortages — but a matter of structural human rights violations. That a child born with a weight of 1.8 kg in Gaza is not just a victim of 'undernutrition', but a victim of a blockade sanctioned by UN resolutions but never implemented.
And that is why GHI 2025 is not just a report. It is the first forensic document that links hunger scores to data on armed conflict, agrarian policies, and even extreme weather patterns triggered by climate change — all in one analytical framework that can no longer be hidden behind bar graphs.
The Numbers that Must Bleed
This morning, in a clinic in Chad, a midwife records the MUAC mid-upper arm circumference score of a baby: 10.8 cm. Below the threshold of 11.5 cm — which means severe wasting. She enters the number into the national GHI system. But she also writes an additional note in her personal diary: 'This baby breastfeeds 7 times a night — but the mother only drinks sugarless tea since yesterday. The milk is pink. I don't know who to report this to.'
That is the point where numbers stop being data — and start being testimony. And maybe, only when GHI dares to include notes like this in its report, will the index really stop being a measurement tool… and start being a voice for those who are never invited to speak in high-level meetings.
Because hunger is not a number that goes up and down. It is a heartbeat that slows down — slowly, silently, and unheard until it's too late.
---
Reference: Global Hunger Index — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global Hunger Index
