Yemen: FAO holds Food Security Analysis Training Workshop

A training and analysis workshop was organized by FAO in collaboration with the National Technical Working Group (NTWG) of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The ten-day workshop (from 1 to 12 November 2020) provided trainees with the skills, information analysis, tools, procedures and key standards needed for developing the food security classification to assess the severity of Yemen’s food insecurity situation. 

The IPC training workshop closed yesterday in Sana’a, with the participation of 120 participants representing government institutions, and a wide range of international and local humanitarian and development organizations. Through the workshop, participants took the first step to becoming globally recognized IPC practitioners. 

The IPC is an innovative multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making. By using the IPC classification and analytical approach, Governments, UN Agencies, NGOs, civil society and other relevant actors, work together to determine the severity and magnitude of acute and chronic food insecurity, and acute malnutrition situations in a country, according to internationally-recognised scientific standards. The main goal of the IPC is to provide decision-makers with a rigorous, evidence- and consensus-based analysis of food insecurity and acute malnutrition situations, to inform emergency responses as well as medium- and long-term policy and programming. 

The IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale was introduced to Yemen in November 2011 and developed the technical capacities of government partners in food and nutrition security data collection, measurement, analysis and communication. The IPC’s analyses, periodic food security updates, and monthly market prices monitoring has been instrumental in supporting informed decision-making for humanitarian organizations, donors and government institutions. 

“The IPC is critical to food security analysis in Yemen, making sure our collective efforts are based on accurate evidence, data and information, and following established international standards,” said Andrea Berloffa, FAO Senior Emergency and Rehabilitation  Officer. “FAO, as the IPC’s leading partner, is committed to facilitating an enabling environment through ongoing capacity development for all of our partners.”

The multi-partner NTWG, composed of more than 10 organizations (FAO, WFP, OCHA, UNICEF, CARE, Mercy Corps, NRC, Oxfam, SUN, SC, Relief International, and Food Security and Nutrition Clusters), manages the IPC in the country.