Causes of Hunger: A Comparative Perspective of Angola and Zambia

Angola and Zambia are Sub-Saharan African countries that share a border spanning some 1,065 kilometers. With estimated populations of around 30 and 17 million respectively, Angola gained its political independence from Portugal in 1975 while Zambia became independent of British rule much earlier in 1964. Following its independence, Angola suffered a civil war that lasted 27 years until 2002. Zambia on the other hand has enjoyed political stability in all the 54 years of independence. Clearly, the two countries have had different political experiences with Zambia seemingly more advantaged than Angola. Angola ranks 95th out of 119 qualifying according to the 2018 Global Hunger Index in 2018. With a score of 29.5, Angola suffers from a level of hunger that is serious; whereas Zambia ranks 115th with a score of 37.6, and suffers from a level of hunger that is alarming. This ranking and score mean Zambia is one of the six least performing countries. Being 20 ranks ahead of Zambia indicates that Angola has made noteworthy strides from being in the extremely alarming hunger level group of countries in 2000 to a serious hunger level in 2018. These strides come in the midst of recovering from one of the longest civil wars in Africa. Despite the political stability in Zambia, hunger remains high and widespread with no evidence of improvement in the general trends. Based on this result, the following research question will be discussed: Why is the developmental progress in Angola higher than in Zambia in terms of hunger? We will focus on the role of good governance in comparative study to analyze the causes and reasons behind this phenomenon. Among several indicators of good governance, a focus on the anti-corruption mechanisms in both countries will be addressed. The primary data would be collected through academic literature, reports, websites and journals.