Oxfam'€™s '€œGood Enough to Eat'€ index compares 125 countries where full data is available to create a snapshot of the different challenges people face in getting food.

The new index looks at whether people have enough food to eat and measures the quality and affordability of their food and their dietary health.

'€œThis index lays bare the common concerns that people have with food regardless of where they come from. It reveals how the world is failing to ensure that everyone is able to eat healthily, despite there being enough to go around,'€ Oxfam international executive director, Winnie Byanyima, said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

She said poverty and inequality were the real drivers of hunger.

'€œHunger happens where the governance is poor, the distribution is weak, when markets fail, and when people don'€™t have enough money and resources to buy all the goods and services they need,'€ said Byanyima. 

'€œHaving sufficient healthy and affordable food is not something that much of the world enjoys,'€ she went on.

European countries occupy almost the entire top 20, bar Australia which stands in eighth place, while Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the US all fell outside the top 20.

African countries occupy the bottom 30 places of the table except four countries -- Bangladesh, India, Laos, and Pakistan -- which are also featured there. Chad ranks last, in 125th place, behind Angola and Ethiopia.

On affordability, the UK is among the worst performers in Western Europe, sharing 20th position with Cyprus. Food in Chad, Gambia, Guinea and Iran costs people two-and-a-half times more than other consumer goods, making those the most expensive countries for citizens to buy food. (ebf)

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