Afghanistan

The IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale was introduced in Afghanistan in August 2011 and led by FAO through the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC), with financial support from ECHO. Since 2012, the country has been conducting IPC Acute Food Insecurity analyses in all 34 provinces once a year. In May 2017, the country conducted a district level IPC Acute Food Insecurity analysis for the East region for the first time. The IPC Acute Malnutrition scale was launched in December 2017 and the IPC Chronic Food Insecurity scale will be rolled out in 2018.

The governance structure of IPC in Afghanistan consists of four components: the National IPC Steering Committee (NISC), the IPC Technical Working Group (IPC TWG), the IPC Secretariat, and the IPC Afghanistan Food Security Technical Team (IPC AFSTT), which is the IPC TWG. The Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) is the official Secretariat of IPC and the Director of the Statistics Division of MAIL is the Chair of the IPC National Technical Working Group (NTWG). The IPC TWG members include the Government, the UN and NGOs. The main role of the IPC TWG is to support the National Coordinator with the coordination and implementation of IPC activities.

Apart from the analyses, the IPC activities in Afghanistan also focus on strengthening the analytical capacity of the AFSTT members using IPC global standards. IPC capacity in Afghanistan was strengthened through regional experience sharing, training and capacity building as well as cross-country visits such as those from IPC experts from Pakistan and Nepal. IPC Acute Food Insecurity Analysis findings have been used in the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), prepared by the country’s Humanitarian Team. It was mainly used for identification of priority areas and was instrumental to the formulation of the FSAC Strategic Response Plan (SRP) and the 2017 Afghanistan Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HRP).

Looking ahead, the NTWG aims to further promote the use of IPC by decision makers in Afghanistan, increasing its financial sustainability and institutionalization within the Government, linking it with information systems.

In 2018, the IPC Global Support Unit (GSU) plans to support the roll out of the IPC Chronic Food Insecurity scale in Afghanistan. The scale can be used to map the areas where years of repeated acute food insecurity crises have led to chronic food insecurity. The GSU also plans to build country capacity through an IPC Regional Level 2 Training and Cross Country Learning Exchange (CCLE) travel.

Country contacts

Duaa Sayed
IPC Regional Coordinator for Asia
FAO-UN FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO RAP)
39 Phra Athit Road, Phranakorn District, Bangkok 10200,Thailand
[email protected]