{"id":80759,"date":"2024-06-25T11:22:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T11:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/25\/what-is-a-famine-and-who-determines-that-one-exists\/"},"modified":"2024-06-25T11:22:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T11:22:11","slug":"what-is-a-famine-and-who-determines-that-one-exists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/25\/what-is-a-famine-and-who-determines-that-one-exists\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is a Famine and Who Determines That One Exists?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/25\/multimedia\/25mideast-crisis-famine-explainer-zlpq\/25mideast-crisis-famine-explainer-zlpq-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"What Is a Famine and Who Determines That One Exists?\" title=\"What Is a Famine and Who Determines That One Exists?\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A group of global experts said on Tuesday <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2024\/06\/25\/world\/israel-gaza-war-hamas\/experts-on-hunger-say-that-almost-half-a-million-people-in-gaza-face-starvation?smid=url-share\" title=\"\">that Gaza is at high risk of famine<\/a>, but it stopped short of saying that one had begun. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officially determining that a famine exists is a technical process. It requires analysis by experts, and only government authorities and top U.N. officials can declare one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So how is famine defined? Here\u2019s a closer look.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-7527aa8a\"><span>What is a famine?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Food insecurity experts working on the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ipcinfo.org\/ipcinfo-website\/ipc-overview-and-classification-system\/en\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Integrated Food Security Phase Classification<\/a>, or I.P.C., an initiative controlled by U.N. bodies and major relief agencies, identify a famine in an area on the basis of three conditions:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"css-1le37cb ez3869y0\">\n<li class=\"css-1i3ul0c eoqvrfo0\">\n<p class=\"css-1il0jfh evys1bk0\">At least 20 percent of households face an extreme lack of food.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"css-1i3ul0c eoqvrfo0\">\n<p class=\"css-1il0jfh evys1bk0\">At least 30 percent of children <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/11\/health\/gaza-hunger-starvation.html\" title=\"\">suffer from acute malnutrition.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"css-1i3ul0c eoqvrfo0\">\n<p class=\"css-1il0jfh evys1bk0\">At least two adults or four children for every 10,000 people die each day from starvation or disease linked to malnutrition.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since the I.P.C. was developed in 2004, it has been used to identify only two famines: in Somalia in 2011, and in South Sudan in 2017. In Somalia, more than 100,000 people died before famine was officially declared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I.P.C. analysts expressed grave concern about food insecurity in Yemen and Ethiopia related to the civil wars in those countries, but said not enough information was available from governments to issue a formal assessment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The classifications of famine in Somalia and South Sudan galvanized global action and spurred large donations.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-2a9adecd\"><span>What has the I.P.C. said about hunger in Gaza?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The first I.P.C. report on Gaza, released in December, found that the enclave\u2019s entire population was experiencing food insecurity at crisis or worse levels. Though the group said Gaza had not yet crossed the famine threshold, it warned that the risk of famine-level hunger would increase if the war did not stop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/18\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-famine-report-starvation.html\" title=\"\">second analysis<\/a> in March projected that famine was \u201cimminent\u201d for the 300,000 Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza, and that such conditions would develop by the end of May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The group\u2019s analysis on Tuesday said almost half a million people in Gaza face starvation because of a catastrophic lack of food. It said aid deliveries had improved the situation in the north, but that Israel\u2019s ground operations in the south had disrupted aid distribution there.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-7a7e9576\"><span>What are the complications in declaring a famine?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The December I.P.C. analysis relied on publicly available data from international and local aid groups in Gaza that the group said met its methodology standards. But I.P.C. analysts said they lacked recent data on the prevalence of acute malnutrition. Getting that data is very difficult in a war zone and poses a burden on already overwhelmed health care workers, the group added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The organization\u2019s criteria were originally designed to address weather-related famine, not wartime crises like the one in Gaza. But most severe hunger crises in recent history have been driven by conflict rather than weather.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And while I.P.C. experts perform the analysis that can classify a famine, it is up to government authorities and the United Nations to formally declare one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In some cases, countries have hesitated to do so. In 2022, Somalia\u2019s president <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/06\/world\/africa\/somalia-famine-hunger.html\" title=\"\">expressed reluctance<\/a> to declare a famine during a severe hunger crisis brought on by a drought. And in 2021, Ethiopia blocked a classification of famine in the Tigray region through heavy lobbying, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/global-health\/climate-and-people\/ethiopia-blocked-famine-declaration-tigray-un-chief-suggests\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">according to a top U.N. official<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is unclear exactly what authority could declare a famine in Gaza. The I.P.C. group said the process typically involves the government in a country and its top U.N. official. Determining who that authority would be in Gaza was beyond the organization\u2019s scope, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/25\/world\/middleeast\/what-is-famine.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of global experts said on Tuesday that Gaza is at high risk of famine, but it stopped short of saying that one had begun. Officially determining that a famine exists is a technical process. It requires analysis by experts, and only government authorities and top U.N. officials can declare one. So how is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/25\/multimedia\/25mideast-crisis-famine-explainer-zlpq\/25mideast-crisis-famine-explainer-zlpq-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29444,71942,6233],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80761,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80759\/revisions\/80761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}