Classification:
The classification of a country as low-income food-deficit used for analytical purposes by FAO is traditionally determined by three criteria. First, a country should have a per capita gross national income (GNI) below the "historical" ceiling used by the World Bank to determine eligibility for IDA assistance and for 20-year IBRD terms, applied to countries included in World Bank's categories I and II. The 2012 LIFDC list is based on the GNI for 2009 (estimated by the World Bank using the Atlas method) and the historical ceiling of US$ 1,905 per capita for 2009. The second criterion is based on the net food import position (i.e. gross imports less gross exports) of a country averaged over the preceding three years for which statistics are available. For the 2012 listing, 2007-09 average is used. Trade volumes for a broad basket of basic foodstuffs (cereals, roots and tubers, pulses, oilseeds and oils other than tree crop oils, meat and dairy products) are converted and aggregated by the calorie content of individual commodities. Thirdly, the self-exclusion criterion is applied when countries that meet the above two criteria specifically request FAO to be excluded from the LIFDC category.
In order to avoid countries changing their LIFDC status too frequently - typically due to short-term, exogenous shocks - an additional factor was introduced in 2001. This factor, called "persistence of position", would postpone the "exit" of a LIFDC from the list, despite the country not meeting the LIFDC income criterion or the food-deficit criterion, until the change in its status is verified for three consecutive years. In other words, a country is taken off the list in the fourth year, after confirming a sustained improvement in its position for three consecutive years.
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