Integrated Food Security Phase Classification

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The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), also known as IPC scale, is a tool for improving food security analysis and decision-making. It is a standardised scale that integrates food security, nutrition and livelihood information into a statement about the nature and severity of a crisis and implications for strategic response. [1]

Contents

The IPC was originally developed in 2004 for use in Somalia by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU). [2] Several national governments and international agencies, including CARE International, European Commission Joint Research Centre (EC JRC), Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), USAID/FEWS NET, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK/US, and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), have been working together to adapt it to other food security contexts. [1] [3] [4]

== IPC scale == The following table includes a summary of the IPC scale: [1] [4]

IPC Phase NumberPhaseDescriptionCrude Death Rate (per 10,000 people per day)
1Generally Food SecureMore than 80% of households can meet basic food needs without atypical coping strategies<0.5
2Borderline Food InsecureFor at least 20 percent of households, food consumption is reduced but minimally adequate without having to engage in irreversible coping strategies. These households cannot fully meet livelihoods protection needs.<0.5
3Acute Food and Livelihood CrisisAt least 20 percent of households have significant food consumption gaps OR are marginally able to meet minimum food needs only with irreversible coping strategies such as liquidating livelihood assets. Levels of acute malnutrition are high and above normal.0.5-0.99
4Humanitarian EmergencyAt least 20 percent of households face extreme food consumption gaps, resulting in very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality; OR households face an extreme loss of livelihood assets that will likely lead to food consumption gaps.1-1.99
5Famine/Humanitarian CatastropheAt least 20 percent of households face a complete lack of food and/or other basic needs and starvation, death, and destitution are evident; and acute malnutrition prevalence exceeds 30%; and mortality rates exceed 2/10000/day>2

Notable applications

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has been used in several countries to assess and respond to food insecurity, each presenting unique challenges and responses.

Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the 2021 IPC analysis highlighted a severe food insecurity crisis, with over 5.5 million people in Tigray, Amhara, and Afar facing high levels of acute food insecurity due to conflict, displacement, and disrupted markets. As of May 2021, approximately 3.1 million were in Crisis (IPC Phase 3), 2.1 million were in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and 353,000 were experiencing Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5). [5]

Sudan

In Sudan, the April–May 2024 IPC analysis indicated severe food insecurity, with 25.6 million people facing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse. A total of 8.5 million are facing Emergency (IPC Phase 4), and 755,000 people - Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5). Key factors include ongoing conflict and limited humanitarian access, particularly in Greater Darfur and Kordofan regions. The analysis warns of possible famine if conditions deteriorate, particularly for displaced populations and refugees in conflict-affected areas. [6]

Congo

The July–December 2024 IPC analysis for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) indicates severe food insecurity affecting 25.6 million people, categorized as Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse. Among them, 3.1 million face Emergency (IPC Phase 4) conditions, particularly in conflict-impacted provinces like North Kivu, Ituri, and South Kivu. Projected conditions from January to June 2025 suggest similar challenges due to ongoing armed conflict, economic instability, and high food prices. Displaced populations remain especially vulnerable. [7]

Gaza Strip

IPC scale has been used to monitor the humanitarian situation in Gaza since the beginning of Israel–Hamas war. According to the September-October 2024 IPC report, 1.84 million people facing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse conditions, but only 6 percent of Gazans face IPC Phase 5 food insecurity, the lowest figure reported since the start of the war. [8] Access to food has improved in some areas following more consistent aid efforts and better food distribution despite persistent challenges tied to infrastructure damage and ongoing conflict. [9]

Somalia

As of July-September 2024, an estimated 4.4 million people in Somalia are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above), with around 1.6 million children likely to suffer from acute malnutrition. While recent rainfall improved agricultural conditions, localized floods and ongoing conflict still hinder food access and agricultural production. Despite these challenges, there is a slight improvement from the previous year. The IPC’s projections for October-December 2024 suggest ongoing needs for humanitarian assistance, particularly for vulnerable populations in crisis and emergency phase. [10]

Yemen

The latest IPC analysis for Yemen, covering July 2024 to February 2025, highlights severe food insecurity affecting nearly half of the population in government-controlled areas. From July to September 2024, about 4.7 million people faced Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity. The economic decline, persistent conflict, and irregular humanitarian aid remain key drivers of food insecurity, worsened by recent floods in August 2024. A marginal improvement is anticipated, but humanitarian aid is crucial to prevent further deterioration. [11]

Key challenges and limitations

The challenges of the IPC scale include data quality issues, particularly in conflict zones or areas with limited access for data collection. This often leads to reliance on available but sometimes unreliable data. There are also challenges with subjective interpretation, as expert judgment is required in cases where data is sparse or inconsistent. Furthermore, the IPC’s reliance on evidence convergence means that contradictory data can arise, complicating consensus-building and analysis​. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food security</span> Measure of the availability and accessibility of food

Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. The availability of food for people of any class and state, gender or religion is another element of food security. Similarly, household food security is considered to exist when all the members of a family, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Individuals who are food-secure do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Food security includes resilience to future disruptions of food supply. Such a disruption could occur due to various risk factors such as droughts and floods, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars. Food insecurity is the opposite of food security: a state where there is only limited or uncertain availability of suitable food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humanitarian crisis</span> Large threat to the health and safety of many people

A humanitarian crisis is defined as a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people. It may be an internal or external conflict and usually occurs throughout a large land area. Local, national and international responses are necessary in such events.

Famine scales are metrics of food security going from entire populations with adequate food to full-scale famine. The word "famine" has highly emotive and political connotations and there has been extensive discussion among international relief agencies offering food aid as to its exact definition. For example, in 1998, although a full-scale famine had developed in southern Sudan, a disproportionate amount of donor food resources went to the Kosovo War. This ambiguity about whether or not a famine is occurring, and the lack of commonly agreed upon criteria by which to differentiate food insecurity has prompted renewed interest in offering precise definitions. As different levels of food insecurity demand different types of response, there have been various methods of famine measurement proposed to help agencies determine the appropriate response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Famine Early Warning Systems Network</span> USAID website

FEWS NET, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, is a website of information and analysis on food insecurity created in 1985 by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the US Department of State, after famines in East and West Africa. In 2008, Molly E. Brown argued that during its twenty years of activity, FEWS NET had been extremely successful. She said that it was widely viewed as "the most effective program in existence for providing information to governments about impending food crises".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 East Africa drought</span> Natural disaster

Occurring between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought affected the entire East African region. Said to be "the worst in 60 years", the drought caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Many refugees from southern Somalia fled to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where crowded, unsanitary conditions together with severe malnutrition led to a large number of deaths. Other countries in East Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, were also affected by a food crisis.

Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) is a measurement of the nutritional status of a population that is often used in protracted refugee situations. Along with the Crude Mortality Rate, it is one of the basic indicators for assessing the severity of a humanitarian crisis.

Since 2016, a food insecurity crisis has been ongoing in Yemen which began during the Yemeni civil war. The UN estimates that the war has caused an estimated 130,000 deaths from indirect causes which include lack of food, health services, and infrastructure as of December 2020. In 2018, Save the Children estimated that 85,000 children have died due to starvation in the three years prior. In May 2020, UNICEF described Yemen as "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world", and estimated that 80% of the population, over 24 million people, were in need of humanitarian assistance. In September 2022, the World Food Programme estimated that 17.4 million Yemenis struggled with food insecurity, and projected that number would increase to 19 million by the end of the year, describing this level of hunger as "unprecedented." The crisis is being compounded by an outbreak of cholera, which resulted in over 3000 deaths between 2015 and mid 2017. While the country is in crisis and multiple regions have been classified as being in IPC Phase 4, an actual classification of famine conditions was averted in 2018 and again in early 2019 due to international relief efforts. In January 2021, two out of 33 regions were classified as IPC 4 while 26 were classified as IPC 3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 South Sudan famine</span> Famine in South Sudan caused by instability and war

In the early months of 2017, parts of South Sudan experienced a famine following several years of instability in the country's food supply caused by war and drought. The famine, largely focused in the northern part of the country, affected an estimated five million people. In May 2017, the famine was officially declared to have weakened to a state of severe food insecurity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aweil South County</span> County in Northern Barh el Ghazal, South Sudan

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Kajo Keji County is an administrative area in Central Equatoria, South Sudan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food security during the COVID-19 pandemic</span> Famines related to the pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 2019.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity intensified in many places. In the second quarter of 2020, there were multiple warnings of famine later in the year. In an early report, the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Oxfam-International talks about "economic devastation" while the lead-author of the UNU-WIDER report compared COVID-19 to a "poverty tsunami". Others talk about "complete destitution", "unprecedented crisis", "natural disaster", "threat of catastrophic global famine". The decision of the WHO on 11 March 2020, to qualify COVID as a pandemic, that is "an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people" also contributed to building this global-scale disaster narrative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Famine in northern Ethiopia (2020–present)</span> Famine occurred during the Tigray War

Beginning with the onset of the Tigray War in November 2020, acute food shortages leading to death and starvation became widespread in northern Ethiopia, and the Tigray, Afar and Amhara Regions in particular. As of August 2022, there are 13 million people facing acute food insecurity, and an estimated 150,000–200,000 had died of starvation by March 2022. In the Tigray Region alone, 89% of people are in need of food aid, with those facing severe hunger reaching up to 47%. In a report published in June 2021, over 350,000 people were already experiencing catastrophic famine conditions. It is the worst famine to happen in East Africa since 2011–2012.

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Throughout 2024, the population of Sudan suffered from severe malnutrition and human-made famine conditions as a result of the Sudanese civil war beginning in 2023, primarily in Darfur, Kordofan, and neighboring refugee-taking nations such as Chad. Famine conditions were caused in part by deliberate attempts by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to siege and loot cities with civilians trapped in them and by both sides blocking off supply routes to allow food and humanitarian aid to flow through. On 1 August, the Global Famine Review Committee released a report officially declaring that there was a high risk of IPC Phase 5 famine conditions ongoing throughout internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Darfur near Al-Fashir. More than 1,050 deaths have been caused by the famine and over 9 million people have been displaced as a result of the famine and war.

In 2024, famine conditions struck Haiti as a result of the ongoing Haitian crisis, resulting in a reported 5,636 people suffering from starvation and 5.4 million civilians— almost half of Haiti's population— suffering from "crisis levels of hunger or worse". While food insecurity was first noted in March 2024, a 30 September report released for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IFSPC) officially declared the presence of famine in Haiti as a consequence of gang conflict preventing transport of food while also preventing civilians from being able to find food outside of their homes.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Protocol 2.2: Compare evidence against the IPC Acute Food Insecurity Reference Table". IPC Global Platform. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  2. ↑ "IPC Overview and Classification System". IPC.
  3. ↑ "IPC Participating Organizations and Donors". Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). April 2011. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  4. 1 2 "IPC Manual 3.1". www.ipcinfo.org. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  5. ↑ "Ethiopia: Acute Food Insecurity Situation May - June 2021 and Projection for July - September 2021". www.ipcinfo.org. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  6. ↑ "Sudan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation for April - May 2024 and Projections for June - September 2024 and October 2024 - February 2025". www.ipcinfo.org. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  7. ↑ "Democratic Republic of the Congo: Acute Food Insecurity Situation for July - December 2024 and Projection for January - June 2025". www.ipcinfo.org. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  8. ↑ "Gaza Strip: Acute Food Insecurity Situation for September - October 2024 and Projection for November 2024 - April 2025". www.ipcinfo.org. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  9. ↑ "UN-Backed Monitors Say Access to Food Improves in Gaza". fdd.org. 22 October 202.
  10. ↑ "Somalia: Acute Food Insecurity Situation July to September 2024 and Projection October to December 2024". www.ipcinfo.org. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  11. ↑ "Yemen: Acute Food Insecurity Situation for July - September 2024 and Projection for October 2024 – February 2025 (partial analysis)". www.ipcinfo.org. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  12. ↑ "Key challenges and limitations". IPC Global Platform. Retrieved 16 November 2024.


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