Countries | Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index

Key data for South Africa

NCI8th HRCI3rd HANCI4th

HANCI compares 45 countries for their performance on 22 indicators of political commitment to reduce hunger and undernutrition. All the countries compared in the index have high rates of hunger and undernutrition. The comparative approach of the index means that country scores are calculated in relation to the political commitment of the other countries in the index.

1Guatemala
2Brazil
3Peru
4South Africa
5Philippines
6Nepal
7Malawi

8Madagascar
9Tanzania
10Indonesia
10Pakistan
12Kenya
12Rwanda
14Burkina Faso

15Mali
16India
17Senegal
18China
19The Gambia
19Niger
21Viet Nam

22Bangladesh
22Ghana
24Côte d’Ivoire
25Uganda
26Cambodia
27Mauritania
27Zambia

29Burundi
30Benin
30Cameroon
32Ethiopia
33Congo, DR
34Mozambique
34Sierra Leone

36Sudan
37Myanmar
38Angola
38Nigeria
40Togo
41Lesotho
42Afghanistan

42Yemen
44Guinea‑Bissau
45Liberia

Existing rates of: Stunting: 27.4% Wasting: 2.5% Proportion of population underweight: 2.5% Source: Government of South Africa (DHS, 2016)

Strong Performance

The Government of South Africa has ensured tenure security for rural populations. Land titling is common and land markets function well. Policy promotes equitable access to common property resources.
South Africa instituted a separate budget line for nutrition, enabling transparency and accountability for spending.
South Africa has devised a National Nutrition Policy/Strategy.
Policymakers in South Africa benefit from regular nutrition surveys that are statistically representative at national level. The last survey was published in 2016.
The Government has fully enshrined the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes into domestic law.
The Government of South Africa promotes complementary feeding practices.
95% of the population of South Africa in 2015 has access to an improved drinking water source.
In South Africa 94% of women aged 15-49 were visited at least once during pregnancy by skilled health personnel in 2016.
In South Africa, constitutional protection of the right to food and the right to social security is strong.

Areas for improvement

Spending on agriculture (1.2% of public spending in 2016), does not meet government commitments set out in the African Union’s Maputo Declaration (10% of public spending).
South Africa’s spending in its health sector (14.1% of public spending in 2015) is close to, yet not fully meeting government commitments set out in the African Union’s Abuja Declaration (15% of public spending).
In South Africa, the law gives women and men equal economic rights and equal legal access to agricultural land. However, these laws are not effectively enforced and discriminatory practices against women continue, increasing their vulnerability to hunger and undernutrition.
Even though South Africa has developed a National Nutrition Policy/Strategy and clear time-bound nutrition targets, a multisectoral and multistakeholder policy coordination mechanism is still lacking.
The Government of South Africa has achieved two high doses of vitamin A supplementation for only 42% of children in 2013.

Hunger Reduction Commitment Index (HRCI)

Public Spending	Score	Year	HRCI rank of 45
Public spending on agriculture as share of total public spending ? 2007-2017 Government expenditures on agriculture as share of total government expenditures (Percentage). Color codes or labels used in score cards: Green if >=10 Yellow if <10 and >=7.5 Red if <7.5 none if no benchmark IFPRI (SPEED database), ReSAKSS calculations using IMF Government Statistics http://www.resakss.org/map http://www.ifpri.org/publication/statistics-public-expenditures-economic-development-speed	1.2%	2016	42nd
Public spending on health as share of total public spending ? 2015 Government expenditure on health as a share of total government expenditure (Percentage). Color codes or labels used in score cards: Green if >=15 Yellow if <15 and >=11.25 Red if <11.25 none if no benchmark WHO Global Health Observatory Data Repository http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.GHEDGGHEDGGESHA2011	14.1%	2015	5th

Policies	Score	Year	HRCI rank of 45
Access to land (security of tenure) ? 2014-2016 Assesses the existence of an institutional, legal and market framework for secure land tenure and the procedure for land acquisition and accessibility to all. The Ratings Scale goes from 6 (high) through 1 (low), as follows: 6 - Good for an 3 years 5 - Good 4 - Moderately Satisfactory 3 - Moderately Unsatisfactory 2 - Unsatisfactory 1 - Unsatisfactory for 3 years Color code/labels used in scorecards Very strong/Strong if >=4 Moderate if >2.99 AND <4 Weak/Very weak if <=2.99 The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/pdf/IFD.xlsx	Strong	2016	Joint 10th
Access to agricultural research and extension services ? 2013 This indicator assesses to what extent the agricultural research and extension system is accessible to poor farmers, including women farmers, and is responsive to the needs and priorities of the poor farmers. Coding is done in the same manner as for the ’security of access to land’ indicator. Color code/labels used in scorecards Very strong/Strong if >=4 Moderate if >2.99 AND <4 Weak/Very weak if <=2.99 The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) https://www.ifad.org/	Moderate	2013	Joint 35th
Civil registration system — coverage of live births ? 2010-2016 Percentage of children under five years of age who were registered at the moment of the survey. Color code/labels used in scorecards Green if >=90 Yellow if between 70 AND 90 Red if <=70 UNICEF: DHS/MICS http://data.unicef.org/	85%	2012	7th
Functioning of social protection systems ? 2010-2016 10 = Social safety nets are comprehensive. 7 = Social safety nets are well developed, but do not cover all risks for all strata of the population. 4 = Social safety nets are rudimentary and cover only few risks for a limited number of beneﬁciaries. 1 = Social safety nets do not exist. Color code/labels used in scorecards Very strong/Strong if >=7 Moderate if >4 AND <7 Weak/Very weak if <=4 Transformation Index of the Bertelsmann Stiftung (BTI) http://www.bti-project.org/	Moderate	2016	Joint 2nd

Laws	Score	Year	HRCI rank of 45
Level of constitutional protection of the right to food ? 2014-2017 Strong = 3 ‘Explicit for all citizens and/or specific groups or incorporated under article protecting living standards AND/OR Ratified international law is automatically assigned equal status as constitutional law’ Moderate = 2 ‘Implicit as part of a broader right in constitutional law.’ Weak = 1 ‘No constitutional protection, OR as Directive Principle (not justiceable) OR Likely or confirmed equality of ratified international law to national legislation’ FAO information paper and FAO web database on Right to Food. http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/ap554e/ap554e.pdf http://www.fao.org/3/a-a0511e.pdf http://www.fao.org/right-to-food-around-the-globe/	Strong	2016	Joint 1st
Equality of women’s access to agricultural land ? 2014 Score based on women’s legal rights and de facto rights to own and/or access agricultural land. Value based on the following scale: 1: equal 0.5: Women have equal legal rights but there are discriminatory practices against women’s access to and ownership of land in practice. 0: Women have no/few legal rights to access or own land or access is severely restricted by discriminatory practices. (note: HANCI calculation has reversed the original score for consistency.) Color code/labels used in scorecards In Law & Practice if 1 In Law, not in Practice if 0.5 Not in Law if 0 Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) accessed via OECD’s Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB) http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?datasetcode=GIDDB2012 http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?datasetcode=GIDDB2014	In Law, not in Practice	2014	Joint 4th
Equality of women’s economic rights ? 2011-2014 Score based on women’s economic rights at work (equal pay, job security, work at night, etc.). Value based on the following scale: 1: All women’s economic rights are guaranteed by law. In practice, the government fully and vigorously enforces these laws. 0.5: There are some economic rights for women under law. The enforcement of laws is effective or weak. However, the government still tolerates a low/moderate level of discrimination against women. 0: There are no economic rights for women under law and systematic discrimination based on sex may be built into the law. (note: HANCI calculation has reversed the original score for consistency.) Color code/labels used in scorecards In Law & Practice if 1 In Law, not in Practice if 0.5 Not in Law if 0 Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) accessed via OECD’s Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB) http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?datasetcode=GIDDB2014	In Law, not in Practice	2014	Joint 1st
Constitutional right to social security ? 2006-2017 The Constitution clearly references a right to social security (see Annex II of the source document). Green if ‘yes’ Red if ‘no’ FAO information paper http://www.fao.org/3/a-a0511e.pdf	Yes	2017	Joint 1st

Nutrition Commitment Index (NCI)

Public Spending	Score	Year	NCI rank of 45
Separate budget for nutrition ? 2016-2017 0 = no budgets or where no confirming information could be found 0.5 = sectoral budgets for nutrition 1 = separate budget line for nutrition Color codes or labels used in score cards: Yes if 1 Sectoral only if 0.5 No if 0 SUN Compendium of fiches; IDS Nutrition Governance; Save the Children Nutrition Barometer; WHO Landscape Analysis; Global Nutrition Report (N4G tracking tables). http://globalnutritionreport.org/ http://scalingupnutrition.org/	Yes	2017	Joint 1st

Policies	Score	Year	NCI rank of 45
Vitamin A supplementation coverage for children ? 2011-2015 The percentage of children aged 6-59 months who received 2 high doses of vitamin A supplements within the last year. Color code/labels used in scorecards Green if >=90 Yellow if >70 AND <90 Red if <=70 MICS Indicators, UNICEF field offices and WHO, Countdown 2015 reports, author calculations based on government data https://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/vitamin-a-deficiency/	42%	2013	33rd
Government promotes complementary feeding ? 2010-2014 Whether governments promote complementary feeding practices of children aged 6–9 months and continued breastfeeding of children at ages 12–15 and 20–23 months. Green if ‘yes’ Red if ‘no’ Sun Reports; world breast feeding trends initiative http://worldbreastfeedingtrends.org/ http://scalingupnutrition.org/	Yes	2010	Joint 1st
Population with access to an improved water source ? 2014-2017 The percentage of population with access to an improved drinking-water source. Color code/labels used in scorecards Green if >=90 Yellow if >70 AND <90 Red if <=70 Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for water supply and Sanitation - WHO/UNICEF https://washdata.org/data	95%	2015	4th
Population with access to improved sanitation ? 2014-2017 The percentage of population with access to improved (not shared) sanitation facilities. Color code/labels used in scorecards Green if >=90 Yellow if >70 AND <90 Red if <=70 Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for water supply and Sanitation - WHO/UNICEF https://washdata.org/data	73.1%	2015	7th
Health care visits for pregnant women ? 2010-2017 Percentage of women aged 15–49 years attended at least once during pregnancy by skilled health personnel (doctor, nurse or midwife). Color code/labels used in scorecards Green if >=90 Yellow if >70 AND <90 Red if <=70 UNICEF: DHS/MICS https://data.unicef.org/topic/maternal-health/antenatal-care/	94%	2016	18th
Nutrition features in national development policy ? 2017 Source: Web-based searches. The total count of key search terms in a selected policy document divided by the number of pages in the document, expressed as country ranking relative to other countries. Search terms: nutritio.; undernutrition/under-nutrition; malnutrition/mal-nutrition nutrient; diet.; stunt.; wasting/wasted; short-for-age; short for age; height-for-age; height for age; weight-for-age; weight for age; weight for height; weight-for-height; Underweight; under-weight; Low birth weight; Thinness; Micro-nutrient; micronutrient; 1000 days; one thousand days; Breastfeed.; Behavior change; behaviour change; Iron deficiency anaemi/anemi; Zinc; Deworm; de-worm; Vitamin A; Supplementary feed; complementary feed. Scorecards present the ranks of these scores Strong if rank <=15 Moderate if rank 16 to 30 Weak if rank >=31 web-based searches.	Moderate	2030	19th
National Nutrition Policy/Strategy ? 2014-2017 Whether a national nutrition policy, plan or strategy exists. Green if ‘yes’ Red if ‘no’ EIU Global Food Security Index http://foodsecurityindex.eiu.com/	Yes	2017	Joint 1st
Multisector and multistakeholder policy coordination ? 2014-2017 Whether a multisectoral and multistakeholder coordination mechanism exists. Green if ‘yes’ Red if ‘no’ SUN fiches/Country docs and unpublished SUN country documents http://scalingupnutrition.org/	No	2014	Joint 40th
Time bound nutrition targets ? 2012-2017 Whether governments identify time bound nutrition targets in public policy documents. Green if ‘yes’ Red if ‘no’ SUN Movement Annual Progress Reports, Global Nutrition Report http://globalnutritionreport.org/ http://scalingupnutrition.org/	Yes	2017	Joint 1st
National nutrition survey in last 3 years ? 2017 Has there been a Demographic and Health Survey / Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey /comparable national nutrition survey in the past three years? 1: Yes, if the survey was dated 2013 or thereafter, or currently underway. 0: No, new surveys were not undertaken after 2013. UNICEF, DHS and national nutrition surveys http://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm http://mics.unicef.org/surveys	Yes	2016	Joint 1st

Laws	Score	Year	NCI rank of 45
Enshrine ICBMS in domestic law ? 2016 The extent to which the International Code for Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes is enshrined in law. 4 = ICBMS is fully in law. 3 = Many provisions of ICBMS are in law. 2 = Few provisions are in law. 1 = No legal measures. Color code/labels used in scorecards Fully Enshrined if 4 Few/Many Aspects Enshrined if 2 or 3 Not Enshrined in Law if 1 World Health Organization, UNICEF and IBFAN http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/206008	Fully Enshrined	2016	Joint 1st

Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index Global

Key data for South Africa

Strong Performance

Areas for improvement

Hunger Reduction Commitment Index (HRCI)

Nutrition Commitment Index (NCI)