Cameroon lies in the 15th place in Africa (out of 42 countries) and 80th in the world (out of 118 countries), in the Global Hunger Index 2016, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFRI). This annual ranking, which focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals aiming to totally eradicate hunger in the world by 2030, lists the countries according to the share of their undernourished population.

With an indicator of 40.3 in year 2000 and 22.6 in 2016, Cameroon, Global Hunger Index 2016 reveals, is among the countries having achieved the feat of reducing by more than 45% the proportion of its population afflicted by undernourishment during the last 15 years.

This performance has already been recognised by the FAO in June 2015. Indeed, this specialised organisation of the United Nations awarded a certificate to the Cameroonian Ministry of Agriculture, on 8 June 2015, for having succeeded in achieving the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) even before the target of 2015. This MDG consisted in reducing the proportion of people afflicted by hunger.

«You have overcome great challenges in difficult world economic conditions and political surroundings», indicated the MD of FAO, the Brazilian Graziano da Silva, announcing the list of the 13 countries in the world concerned by this FAO recognition. Among these countries lauded by FAO, we also find Gabon, a country in the CEMAC region that outperformed Cameroon in the Global Hunger Index 2016.

First country in Central Africa in this ranking, Gabon is among the top 5 in Africa and lies in 54th position in the world. Chad and Central African Republic, two other countries in the CEMAC area, are at the bottom of this table. However, it is to be noted that countries such as Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Sao Tome, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan were not included in the 2016 table, due to lack of adequate information, we learn.