Civil conflict began in Ethiopia in November 2020 and has reportedly caused major disrup tions in access to health services, food, and related critical services, in addition to the direct impacts of the conflict on health and well-being. However, the population-level impacts of the conflict have not yet been systematically quantified. We analyze high frequency phone surveys conducted by the World Bank, which included measures of access to basic ser vices, to estimate the impact of the first phase of the war (November 2020 to May 2021) on households in Tigray. After controlling for sample selection, a difference-in-differences approach is used to estimate causal effects of the conflict on population access to health services, food, and water and sanitation. Inverse probability weighting is used to adjust for sample attrition. The conflict has increased the share of respondents who report that they were unable to access needed health services by 35 percentage points (95% CI: 14–55 pp) and medicine by 8 pp (95% CI:2–15 pp). It has also increased the share of households unable to purchase staple foods by 26 pp (95% CI:7–45 pp). The share of households unable to access water did not increase, although the percentage able to purchase soap declined by 17 pp (95% CI: 1–32 pp). We document significant heterogeneity across popula tion groups, with disproportionate effects on the poor, on rural populations, on households with undernourished children, and those living in communities without health facilities. These significant disruptions in access to basic services likely underestimate the true bur den of conflict in the affected population, given that the conflict has continued beyond the survey period, and that worse-affected households may have higher rates of non-response. Documented spatial and household-level heterogeneity in the impact of the conflict may help guide rapid post-conflict responses.

World hunger, according to the 2012 Global Hunger Index (GHI), has declined somewhat since 1990 but remains “serious.” The global average masks dramatic differences among regions and countries. Regionally, the highest GHI scores are in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. South Asia reduced its GHI score significantly between 1990 and 1996—mainly by reducing the share of underweight children— but could not maintain this rapid progress. Though Sub-Saharan Africa made less progress than South Asia in the 1990s, it has caught up since the turn of the millennium, with its 2012 GHI score falling below that of South Asia. From the 1990 GHI to the 2012 GHI, 15 countries reduced their scores by 50 percent or more. In terms of absolute progress, between the 1990 GHI and the 2012 GHI, Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nicaragua, Niger, and Vietnam saw the largest improvements in their scores. Twenty countries still have levels of hunger that are “extremely alarming” or “alarming.” Most of the countries with alarming GHI scores are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (the 2012 GHI does not, however, reflect the recent crisis in the Horn of Africa, which intensified in 2011, or the uncertain food situation in the Sahel). Two of the three countries with extremely alarming 2012 GHI scores—Burundi and Eritrea—are in Sub-Saharan Africa; the third country with an extremely alarming score is Haiti. Its GHI score fell by about one quarter from 1990 to 2001, but most of this improvement was reversed in subsequent years. The devastating January 2010 earthquake, although not yet fully captured by the 2012 GHI because of insufficient availability of recent data, pushed Haiti back into the category of “extremely alarming.” In contrast to recent years, the Democratic Republic of Congo is not listed as “extremely alarming,” because insufficient data are available to calculate the country’s GHI score. Current and reliable data are urgently needed to appraise the situation in the country. | Non-PR | IFPRI2; GRP24 | COM; MTID; DGO; EPTD; PHND; WCAO

De acuerdo con el Índice Global del Hambre (GHI, por sus siglas en inglés) de 2012, el hambre a nivel mundial ha disminuido algo desde 1990 pero continúa siendo “serio”. El promedio global enmascara diferencias dramáticas entre regiones y países. A nivel regional, los mayores puntajes del GHI se encuentran en Asia meridional y en el África Subsahariana. Asia meridional redujo sus puntajes de GHI de forma significativa entre 1990 y 1996 —principalmente a través de una reducción en la proporción de niños con bajo peso— pero no pudo mantener este rápido progreso. Y aunque el África Subsahariana progresó menos que Asia meridional en la década de 1990, ha logrado reducir la brecha a partir del nuevo milenio, con un puntaje del GHI en 2012 apenas por debajo del obtenido por Asia meridional. | Non-PR | IFPRI2; GRP24 | COM; MTID; DGO; EPTD; PHND; WCAO

Book | COM; MTID; DGO; EPTD; PHND; WCAO | De acuerdo con el Índice Global del Hambre (GHI, por sus siglas en inglés) de 2012, el hambre a nivel mundial ha disminuido algo desde 1990 pero continúa siendo “serio”. El promedio global enmascara diferencias dramáticas entre regiones y países. A nivel regional, los mayores puntajes del GHI se encuentran en Asia meridional y en el África Subsahariana. Asia meridional redujo sus puntajes de GHI de forma significativa entre 1990 y 1996 —principalmente a través de una reducción en la proporción de niños con bajo peso— pero no pudo mantener este rápido progreso. Y aunque el África Subsahariana progresó menos que Asia meridional en la década de 1990, ha logrado reducir la brecha a partir del nuevo milenio, con un puntaje del GHI en 2012 apenas por debajo del obtenido por Asia meridional. | IFPRI2; GRP24 | Non-PR