IPC implementation is quite new in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), indeed, while the introduction process in the Region started in 2010, the first IPC activities took place in 2012.

Jerry Argüello Delgado, IPC Regional Coordinator in Latin America and the Caribbean, talked about future plans and expected added value of the IPC in the Region, where “the IPC-Acute Classification is relevant when a stress situation occurs, generated by events such hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods. In such situations, decision makers are required to identify prompt actions in the short-term period and the IPC-Acute provides them with the right information to perform their tasks”.

On the other hand, IPC-Chronic Classification is of relevance on medium- and long-term basis. “Most of the food and nutrition security-based strategies and resource allocations in Latin America are generally guided by poverty estimates and health and demographic surveys” said Mr. Argüello. “A holistic scenario of food and nutrition security, combining multi-sectoral information and their spatial convergence, has always been lacking”.

The IPC-Chronic approach has the potential to provide it, according to Mr. Argüello. “This is particularly important because, despite several existing food security and nutrition programmes in the Region, chronic malnutrition and chronic food security in some areas remain very high. The IPC-Chronic analysis allows decision makers to address the persistent limiting and underlying factors of food insecurity in the policy and programme design”.

Moreover, the roll-out of the IPC Chronic has shown the need for better food security information systems for local, national and regional decision making platforms in LAC. More investments are required to generate a continued flow of reliable food security-related data. “The implementation of the IPC Chronic Scale could create opportunities for standardizing data collection methods, thus allowing comparison of the evidences collected across space and time. This platform could help governments in terms of a better allocation of their resources”.

Mr. Argüello also talked about the IPC Acute Malnutrition Classification, which however is not likely to be applied in the Region because of the low Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate. “The presence of a complementary classification scale for malnutrition situations equips decision-makers with a better understanding of both underlying and direct factors that affect nutritional vulnerability”.

Finally, Mr. Argüello described the future plans for IPC in Latin America: “Strengthening Government ownership, leadership and political commitment to the dissemination and utilization of IPC products is the main challenge we need to face and it is key to the future success of the in the SICA region”.

Another priority is represented by the “intensification of capacity building efforts, aimed at expanding the number of trained and certified IPC Analysts at national or subnational level”. In this context, LAC is the first Region where the IPC Training has been embedded in an academic course, i.e. the PRESANCA Master’s Degree course in food security.

IPC in Latin America and the Caribbean