1.The IPC standardized protocols (tools and procedures) respond to the need for a common approach for classifying various food insecurity situations, within and among countries, and across time.
The IPC “approach” consists of four mutually agreed-upon functions, including specific tools and procedures:
Building Technical Consensus
Classifying Severity and Causes
Communicating for Action
The IPC is based on an Analytical Framework that addresses the multi-dimensional nature of food security issues. With an emphasis on household food security, the IPC Analytical Framework draws together key aspects of four commonly accepted conceptual frameworks for food security, nutrition, and livelihoods analysis:
Risk = f (Hazard, Vulnerability) (White, 1975: Turner et al. 2003).
Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (Sen, 1981; Frankenberger, 1992; Save the Children Fund (SCF)–United Kingdom, 2000; DFID, 2001).
The four dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability (FAO 2006).
The United Nations Children’s Fund Nutrition Conceptual Framework (UNICEF, 1996).
2. IPC makes a distinction between acute and chronic food insecurity at two points in time.
Considering the need to draw stronger attention to the issue of chronic food insecurity, the Version 2.0 of the IPC Manual proposes a prototype tools for chronic food insecurity analysis, to be tested and further developed.
Acute food insecurity is classified according to 5 phases:
The IPC classifies the severity of the acute situation for two time periods:
The situation at the time the analysis is conducted
A future projection to provide an early warning statement for proactive decision-making
3. The IPC provides stronger links between information and action.
The IPC simplifies quite complex information and analysis (myriad of indicators, methodologies, statistics, etc.) into actionable knowledge and identifies response objectives.
Communication is a core function and output of the IPC. The IPC Acute Food Insecurity Overview presents and describes core outputs of the analysis in a consistent, accessible and timely manner, so that senior planners and decision‐makers can have the key conclusions. It features:
Summary of key Findings, issues, methods and recommendations for next steps