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	When does hunger become famine? by Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)   "Famine" is a term defined by clear criteria. When humanitarian actors warn against it, a population’s lack of access to food has already started claiming lives.   The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and other NGOs use the five levels of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) as one of the tools to classify the severity and magnitude of food shortage in a population.   Famine occurs when the food shortage in an area reaches level 5 and several of the following criteria are met:   More than 20 per cent of households have acute food shortage or no access to food and people struggle to survive.   More than 30 per cent of the population suffer from acute malnutrition.   The death rate is higher than 2 deaths per 10,000 citizens per day.   The death rate for children under the age of five is higher than 4 deaths per 10,000 children per day.   40 per cent of the population is malnourished.   Calculating the risk   How to avoid famine? One important measure is to keep track on how a situation of food shortage develops.   NRC’s food security expert, Thomas Olholm, says calculating the risk of famine can be compared to a meteorologist’s calculation of weather.   “A meteorologist can estimate next month’s weather and see if a storm is coming. The closer the storm is, the more precise the estimates of its consequences will be,” Olholm explains.   He adds that the earlier we act, the better and more efficient the assistance will be and we will be able to minimise the effects of the storm.   “When the risk increases to level five, you are standing in the centre of the storm,” says Olholm.   5 levels   By using the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification tools to assess a population’s access to food, humanitarian actors can see how close the population is to famine. These are the five levels:   Level 1: More than one in five households has basic access to food.   Level 2: Access to food is moderate. At least one in five families has minimal access to food and cannot afford to spend resources on other things than food. On this level, humanitarian assistance focuses on reducing risk of food shortage, strengthening the population’s livelihoods, redressing structural hindrances to food security, creating a contingency plan and drawing attention to the situation through advocacy work.   Level 3: There is an emergency. At least one in five families suffers from acute malnutrition or barely gets enough nourishment. In addition to protecting vulnerable groups and ensure they receive food, humanitarian actors concentrate on stopping the crisis from expanding. This can be difficult if there is not enough money to finance the humanitarian aid, if reaching the affected population is problematic or if the local political leadership is deficient. On this level, the crisis can worsen rapidly, but it is still possible to avoid famine.   Level 4: There is a humanitarian crisis and the number of deaths is rising. At least one in five families suffers from acute malnutrition or will have no access to food in the short term. On this level, the population often lack resources or energy to move to places with easier access to food. Humanitarian organisations work to save lives and livelihoods.   Level 5: There is a famine. Parts of the population experience organ failure and their immune system becomes so fragile they turn ill. Some people die. All possible measures have to be taken to ensure that food reaches those affected. In addition, humanitarian organisations work to save lives and stop people’s livelihoods from collapsing.   Depending on information   Olholm explains that to declare famine, humanitarian actors need to have the necessary information about the situation in the area. Sometimes they do not have this information, in which case they will explain why there is a reason to believe a famine is approaching.   Since the beginning of 2017, Nigeria’s Borno state is an example of the latter.   “There, humanitarian actors have not had any access to the areas because of the conflict with Boko Haram, but, thanks to the little information we could gather, we have been able to form a picture about the situation, which seems to be very severe,” says Olholm.   The Norwegian Refugee Council assists people fleeing conflict and war, and we often see that conflicts affect people’s access to food.   “In countries where large parts of the population are malnourished, war and conflict can in short time lead to famine, especially in countries exposed to drought,” Olholm explains. Visit the related web page
	Expanding social protection offers a faster track to ending hunger by Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO)   October 2015   Social protection is emerging as a critical tool in the drive to eradicate hunger, yet the vast majority of the world''s rural poor are yet to be covered.   The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 published by FAO today finds that in poor countries, social protection schemes - such as cash transfers, school feeding and public works - offer an economical way to provide vulnerable people with opportunities to move out of extreme poverty and hunger and to improve their children''s health, education and life chances.   Such programmes currently benefit 2.1 billion people in developing countries in various ways -- including keeping 150 million people out of extreme poverty.   Expanding such programs in rural areas and linking them to inclusive agricultural growth policies would rapidly reduce the number of poor people, the report says.   The report was released on the eve of World Food Day (16 October), whose focus is on social protection''s role in breaking the cycle of rural poverty.   "It is urgent that we act to support the most vulnerable people in order to free the world of hunger," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.   "Social protection programs allow households to access more food -- often by increasing what they grow themselves -- and also make their diets more diverse and healthier. These programs can have positive impacts on infant and maternal nutrition, reduce child labor and raise school attendance, all of which increase productivity," he said.   Only about a third of the world''s poorest people are covered by any form of social protection. Coverage rates dip even lower in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, regions with the highest incidence of extreme poverty, the report said.   Without such assistance, many poor and vulnerable people will never have the opportunity to break out of the poverty trap -- in which hunger, illness and lack of education perpetuate poverty for future generations, according to the report.   Most countries -- even the poorest -- can afford some kind of social protection program. FAO estimates that globally, some $67 billion a year in income supplements, mostly provided by social protection programs, would -- along with other targeted pro-poor investments in agriculture -- allow for the eradication of hunger by 2030. That is less than 0.10 percent of world GDP.   Currently many extremely poor households are forced to sell off productive assets, put children to work, over-exploit their small landholdings unsustainably, or settle for badly paid jobs.   Yet basic social transfer schemes offer the poor an opportunity to improve their own productive potential. They also have positive spillover effects on local economies, increasing business opportunities, raising rural wages, and allowing the poorest to acquire or invest in assets.   In Zambia for example, a pilot cash-grants program led recipient households to greatly increase livestock ownership as well as land under cultivation, input use and ownership of tools such as hoes, sickles and axes, leading to a 50 percent jump in the overall value of locally produced agricultural commodities.   Beneficiaries also spent more on food, clothing and health-and-hygiene - an amount 25 percent greater than the value of the initial transfer. The wider community also benefited through the increased demand for locally produced goods and services generated by the transfer-every dollar transferred generates an additional 79 cents in income, often for non-beneficiaries providing these goods and services.   At least 145 countries today provide one or more forms of social assistance, including unconditional cash transfers, meaning outright grants for eligible recipients, conditional cash transfers, usually linked to school attendance or health checkups and, public-works programs that offer guaranteed employment. Other forms include in-kind transfers, including food distribution and school feeding programs.   The report stresses that the notion that social protection reduces people''s work effort is a myth. Rather, recipients often respond to social protection positively, including improving the nutrition and education of their children, relying more on home production rather than poorly paid wage work and also increasing their participation in existing networks, a common form of risk management in many traditional communities.   Social protection schemes can also be transformative over time. One well-designed Bangladeshi programme gave poor rural women livestock and other productive assets, as well as a monthly stipend to cover the period until recipients were able to earn additional incomes.   The FAO report also cites other successful examples of social protection programs in Ethiopia, Ghana and Lesotho.   Such findings show how social protection is an investment, rather than a cost. It is also clearly illustrated by Brazil''s Bolsa Família, a well-integrated scheme that reaches a quarter of the country''s population and costs only 0.5 percent of GDP.   Still, the report stresses how social protection alone cannot sustainably eradicate hunger and rural poverty. It therefore underscores the importance of combining and coordinating public investment in social protection with investments in the productive sectors of agriculture and rural development. Such actions will ensure inclusive economic growth as a sustainable way to break the cycle of rural poverty.   http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/335748/icode/ http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/2015/en/ Visit the related web page
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