Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC):
UN emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock said Tigray region of Ethiopia is witnessing widespread famine. According to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, famine conditions in Tigray are in phase 5 with 350,000 people out of Tigray’s 6 million population are experiencing famine.
- 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.
- The IPC was originally developed for use in Somalia by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU).
- The following table includes a summary of the IPC scale –
- Phase 1: Generally Food Secure (More than 80% of households can meet basic food needs without atypical coping strategies)
- Phase 2: Borderline Food Insecure (For at least 20 percent of households, food consumption is reduced but is minimally adequate)
- Phase 3: Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis (At least 20 percent of households have significant food consumption gaps. Levels of acute malnutrition are high and above normal)
- Phase 4: Humanitarian Emergency (At least 20 percent of households face extreme food consumption gaps, resulting in very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality)
- Phase 5: Famine/Humanitarian Catastrophe (At 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)
