Classifying Acute Food Insecurity Using the Household Hunger Scale

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Author(s)
Maxwell, D. , Hailey, P. , Day, M. , Adan, G. , Maxwell, J. , Odhiambo, S.B.J. , Venkat, A. , Kaindi, L. & Njiru, J.
Publication language
English
Pages
37pp
Date published
01 Jun 2020
Type
Research, reports and studies
Keywords
Assessment & Analysis, Disasters, Drought, Food security, humanitarian action
Countries
Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan

The currently accepted means of categorizing household food insecurity and identifying famine or famine risk is the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) tool. Recent IPC analyses in countries at risk of famine have had difficulty correctly classifying households in Phase 5:“catastrophe”or famine conditions. The Household Hunger Scale (HHS) is the only means of differentiating households in Phase 5 from Phase 4 (“emergency”). However, its ability to accurately distinguish between these phases has never been field tested. That was the purpose of this study.

 

Authors: 
Maxwell, D. , Hailey, P. , Day, M. , Adan, G. , Maxwell, J. , Odhiambo, S.B.J. , Venkat, A. , Kaindi, L. & Njiru, J.