Countries | Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index

Key data for Zambia

NCI12th HRCI39th HANCI27th

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: 40% Wasting: 6.3% Proportion of population underweight: 6.3% Source: Government of Zambia (DHS, 2013-14)

Strong Performance

The Government encourages varied agricultural research and extension services, and local farmer organisations are involved in setting policy priorities. The extension system is effective and properly reaches out to poor farmers. Government policies, strategies and mechanisms seek to ensure gender equity in access to extension services.
Zambia instituted a separate budget line for nutrition, enabling transparency and accountability for spending.
The National Nutrition Policy/Strategy identifies time bound nutrition targets and a multisectoral and multistakeholder policy coordination mechanism has been set up.
Policymakers in Zambia benefit from regular nutrition surveys that are statistically representative at national level. The last survey was published in 2013-2014.
The Government of Zambia promotes complementary feeding practices and has achieved two high doses of vitamin A supplementation for 93% of children in 2013.
In Zambia 95.7% of women aged 15-49 were visited at least once during pregnancy by skilled health personnel in 2013-2014.

Areas for improvement

Spending on agriculture (8.2% of public spending in 2016) is close to, yet not fully meeting government commitments set out in the African Union’s Maputo Declaration (10% of public spending).
Zambia’s spending in its health sector (6.8% of public spending in 2015) does not fully meet (15%) commitments set out in the Abuja Declaration.
In Zambia, law does neither give women economic rights or agricultural land access rights equal to men. This increases women and children’s vulnerability to hunger and undernutrition.
Weak access to an improved source of drinking water (67.1% in 2015) and an improved sanitation facility (31.1% in 2015) prevents positive outcomes for hunger and nutrition in Zambia.
In Zambia, constitutional protection of the right to food and the right to social security is weak.
Social safety nets in Zambia are basic and only cover few risks for a limited number of beneficiaries.
Civil registration rates are weak (11.3% in 2014) and potentially hold back children’s access to critical public services such as health and education.

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	8.2%	2016	14th
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	6.8%	2015	20th

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	Moderate	2016	Joint 28th
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/	Strong	2013	Joint 15th
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/	11.3%	2014	44th
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/	Weak	2016	Joint 11th

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/	Weak	2016	Joint 30th
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	Not in Law	2014	Joint 41st
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	Not in Law	2014	Joint 30th
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	No	2016	Joint 34th

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/	93%	2013	14th
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	2014	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	67.1%	2015	37th
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	31.1%	2015	28th
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/	95.7%	2013-2014	11th
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	2017-2021	17th
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/	Yes	2017	Joint 1st
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	2013-2014	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	Many Aspects Enshrined	2016	Joint 20th

Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index Global

Key data for Zambia

Strong Performance

Areas for improvement

Hunger Reduction Commitment Index (HRCI)

Nutrition Commitment Index (NCI)