Expert insights from Vincent Valdmanis, Director of Peace and Security Policy for the Better World Campaign
In remarks to the UN Security Council this week, Amb. Robert Wood was blunt: “People are dying – and have been dying – in Sudan – from starvation.”
Amb. Wood was speaking about a report from the Famine Review Committee – part of the multistakeholder Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system – which concluded that Sudan is now in a state of famine.
There’s no question that technocratic statements can be complicated, often vacillating among the apocalyptic, abstract and political. But these declarations matter – to the people involved and to humanitarian actors like the U.S. As an indispensable supporter of the IPC and the emergency food security system it upholds, the U.S. almost single-handedly created global famine monitoring and early warning systems, continuing to lead the world in funding their operations. Famine monitoring, in fact, has been a stand-out area of U.S. policy and aid leadership, including covering the costs for the U.S.-based and universally-used Famine Early Warning System Network.
“The U.S. almost single-handedly created global famine monitoring and early warning systems, continuing to lead the world in funding their operations. Famine monitoring, in fact, has been a stand-out area of U.S. policy.”
In light of unfolding events in Sudan and America’s central role in support for addressing famine worldwide, we wanted to break down the process of a famine declaration as we raise the alarm on this particular crisis.
Because the fact is that IPC declarations wield a unique power. They set humanitarian machinery in motion, releasing funding and accelerating a global response.
Defining Terms
There are a couple ways famine is confirmed.
Official declarations of famine come from sovereign states, not multilateral bodies like the UN. Governments, however, rarely take such action for fear of being blamed for the failures that may have led to starvation. An exception occurred in 2017, when the government of South Sudan officially endorsed a famine declaration. Three years later, UN reports found the government was weaponizing starvation through practices like increasing visa fees on the very workers entering the country to address the crisis, and that conditions of famine had re-emerged. The South Sudan government then disavowed its declaration, even as food security experts again identified famine conditions present in 2020.
But even if state declarations of famine almost never happen, real-world starvation certainly does. That’s where technical declarations come into play, which, in turn, face challenges of credibility: What sources of data are used? How are they validated? What standards are followed? Who funds the work? How is political interference prevented?
“IPC declarations wield a unique power. They set humanitarian machinery in motion, releasing funding and accelerating a global response.”
To address this, responsibility for technical famine declarations rests with independent expert committees operating under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) standards – a transparent, rigorous and standardized methodology with clearly defined evidence thresholds.
The IPC articulates three thresholds for a famine designation. First, that 20 percent of households (or one in five people in an area) face extreme lack of food. Second, that 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition. And third, that two adults or four children for every 10,000 die daily from malnutrition or starvation. Two of these three grim markers must be present for the IPC to declare a famine.
In the case of Sudan, the IPC Famine Review Committee declared famine conditions in North Darfur’s Zamzam Refugee Camp as recently as July. Two other camps for displaced persons – Abu Shouk and Al Salam – are also likely experiencing famine, but limited access has made confirmation difficult. And meanwhile, the government of Sudan has yet to declare a famine emergency.
What happens next will depend on global will, regional response and access to the populations most in need. But one thing is certain – the U.S. is invested.
For a comprehensive look into the food crisis in Sudan, The New York Times is covering hunger along Sudan’s border with Chad.
