Beyond ‘Politics by Numbers’: Building Partnerships to Create and Use Global Indicators

Abstract

Since the global food price crisis erupted in 2008, progress on reducing hunger and malnutrition has become increasingly viewed as a political issue, rather than a technical one. Political commitment is now considered an essential ingredient for elevating the issue onto policy agendas. Consequently, a range of metrics, indexes and scorecards have been developed to influence policy and to promote greater accountability for hunger and malnutrition. While the rapid global proliferation of these ‘indicators’ have raised important methodological and political critiques, new approaches that emphasise partnership between researchers and civil society users, such as pioneered in the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI), have much potential to overcome such criticisms.