The IPC Initiative in Latin America and Caribbean achieved considerable progress in 2013. In April 2013, a multi-agency IPC Regional Technical Working Group (GT CIF in Spanish) was formed to guide and oversee the IPC initiative in the region. The GT CIF, consisting of representatives of the IPC SC agencies and partners, is integrated within the Regional Working Group on Food Security, based in Panama.

During the last year, over 200 people were trained in the IPC Level 1 Training in the region, thanks to the financial support provided by DFID, the European Commission and USAID, and with contributions from regional partners and governments to the organisation of IPC workshops.

At global level, the Region has strongly contributed to the development of the IPC Chronic Scale. Indeed, the IPC Chronic Scale was piloted in two countries: Honduras (February 2013) and Guatemala (November 2013). In April 2013 a first IPC analysis of the acute food insecurity situation was conducted in one department of Haiti. The first full IPC acute food insecurity analysis was completed at the national level in June 2013. The IPC implementation in the region for 2014 also sounds promising.

In El Salvador, the Government is planning to pilot the IPC Acute Scale during 2014, while in Guatemala and Nicaragua conversations on the continuation of the IPC are still ongoing. The Governments of Haiti and El Salvador have expressed interest in using the IPC Chronic Scale to assess the severity of chronic food insecurity in their countries in 2014.

The key challenges facing the IPC initiative in LAC in 2014 include:

• Creation of IPC National Technical Working Groups in all countries
• Building technical capacity in Food Security thus improving the quality of IPC analyses
• Strengthening the institutionalization of IPC within Regional and National structures, frameworks and strategies
• More prominent consideration of non-food security contributing factors into the IPC analysis.

IPC in LAC