{"id":2385,"date":"2025-08-22T16:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/?p=2385"},"modified":"2025-08-22T16:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:17:09","slug":"factbox-how-the-ipc-global-hunger-monitor-determines-famine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/2025\/08\/22\/factbox-how-the-ipc-global-hunger-monitor-determines-famine\/","title":{"rendered":"Factbox: How the IPC global hunger monitor determines famine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, August 21, 2025. \u2014 Reuters\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A global hunger monitor determined on Friday that famine is taking place in Gaza, nearly two years after Israel launched a military campaign in the tiny Palestinian territory in response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Here is an explanation of what the monitor is, how it assesses a hunger crisis, when it identifies famine and how it collects data.<\/p>\n

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is an independent body funded by Western countries and widely recognised as the main global system for measuring the severity of hunger crises.<\/p>\n

It was set up to sound the alarm so that famine and mass starvation could be prevented and to help organisations respond.<\/p>\n

The IPC is overseen by 19 major humanitarian organisations and regional bodies. It typically partners with national governments to analyse data.<\/p>\n

How is famine determined?<\/h2>\n

The IPC system charts acute food insecurity on a five-phase scale. Its most extreme warning is Phase 5, which has two levels, catastrophe and famine.<\/p>\n

If the IPC or one of its partners finds that at least one area is in famine, a famine review committee, led by up to six experts, is activated.<\/p>\n

For an area to be classified as in famine, at least 20% of people must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.<\/p>\n

The IPC says it does not formally declare famine, but provides analysis for governments and others to do so.<\/p>\n

Even if a region has not yet been classified as in famine, the IPC can determine that households there are suffering famine conditions, which it describes as starvation, destitution and death.<\/p>\n

The IPC relies on the UN World Food Programme and other relief organisations and government agencies to provide data.<\/p>\n

Its preferred method for assessing acute malnutrition levels is to measure children’s weight and height, or if conditions do not allow that, to measure the circumference of children’s upper arms.<\/p>\n

What are the precedents?<\/h2>\n

This is the fifth time in the past 14 years that a famine has been determined by the IPC, and the first time it has confirmed famine outside Africa.<\/p>\n

The IPC previously concluded that there was famine in areas of Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024.<\/p>\n

Some have criticised the IPC for being too slow to respond to serious humanitarian catastrophes. In Gaza, it has struggled to access data and Israel has contested its findings.<\/p>\n

While a famine classification does not trigger any formal response, it can focus global attention.<\/p>\n

What is the current assessment in Gaza?<\/h1>\n

Of the people affected, some 280,000 are in a northern region covering Gaza City, which the IPC said was in famine. The rest are in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis \u2014 central and southern areas that the IPC projected would be in famine by the end of next month.<\/p>\n

The IPC said the analysis released on Friday only covered people living in the Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis areas.<\/p>\n

It was unable to classify North Gaza governorate due to access restrictions and a lack of data and it excluded any remaining population in the southern Rafah region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, August 21, 2025. \u2014 Reuters\u00a0 A global hunger monitor determined on Friday that famine is taking place in Gaza, nearly two years after Israel launched a military campaign in the tiny Palestinian territory in response to the Hamas attack of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2387,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions\/2387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesofpakistan.tv\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}