Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Pakistan has jointly organized a 9-day training workshop in Peshawar on Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) for Acute Food Insecurity Analysis, aiming to enhance the capabilities of domestic stakeholders in food security analysis. Mr. Inayatullah Wasim, Secretary of the Relief, Rehabilitation, and Settlement Department, participated as the chief guest of the workshop.
The workshop was attended by over 70 participants from federal and provincial government ministries/departments, national and international NGOs, and UN partners, including the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and UNWOMEN.
This initiative is planned to empower participants with enhanced skills and knowledge in IPC analysis, providing a comprehensive understanding of the food security landscape.
IPC is a collaborative initiative designed to improve food security and nutrition analysis. Various stakeholders collaborate to assess the severity and scale of acute food insecurity using internationally accepted scientific standards. The primary goal is to provide decision-makers with a thorough, evidence-based analysis of food insecurity situations to guide emergency responses as well as medium and long-term policy and programming.
Notable speakers, including FAO Representative in Pakistan, Ms Florence Rolle; Country Director of WFP, Ms Coco Ushiyama; FAO Head of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa office, Mr Farrukh Toirov; and Mr. Asghar Jamali (PDMA Balochistan), underscored the importance of the workshop and termed it an opportunity to exchange knowledge, build networks, and work towards a more resilient and secure future for communities.
The speakers emphasized the workshop's significance in strengthening domestic capacities for food security analysis and highlighted its role in identifying the most vulnerable populations across three provinces of Pakistan and addressing acute food insecurity challenges along with fortifying food security strategies in Pakistan.
The IPC for 2024 would cover 47 districts, specifically those prone to climate shocks and affected by floods in Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This strategic approach aims for a more focused and targeted response to the needs of the food-insecure population in these vulnerable districts.