“Ethiopia, Botswana and the Dominican Republic made the largest gains in food security in the past year, according to … this year’s Global Food Security Index, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit,” VOA News reports. “Increases in income and food availability in developing countries drove the largest improvements in this year’s” report, the news service writes, noting, “Botswana ranked number 43 out of 107 countries studied. But most of sub-Saharan Africa scored low. Even with this year’s gains, Ethiopia is number 90.” VOA continues, “Democratic reform and political stability were linked to improvements in food security in Burma and Sri Lanka, while conflict pushed Mali, Yemen and Syria down the index,” adding, “The index comprises 27 measures of food affordability, availability and quality” (7/2).