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More or Less: When do food shortages become a famine?

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When do food shortages become a famine?

26/11/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - More or Less, When do food shortages become a famine?

With Somalia in crisis, we ask how data is used to officially declare a famine

With Somalia facing another major humanitarian crisis, we ask how data is used to officially declare a famine

Somalia is experiencing its worst drought for 40 years and there are warnings that millions of people need food assistance urgently. The UN body tasked with classifying levels of food security has projected a famine, although no official declaration has yet been made. We ask what data is used to formally categorise famine and explore some of the difficulties in collecting it, with the help of UN IPC Global Programme Manager Jose Lopez and Professor Laura Hammond, Pro Director of Research & Knowledge Exchange at SOAS.


Presenter & producer: Jon Bithrey
Editor: Simon Watts
Production Coordinator: Jacqui Johnson
Sound Engineer: James Beard


(Image:  People affected by the worsening drought due to failed rain seasons, look on, at the Alla Futo camp for internally displaced people, in the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia:  REUTERS/Feisal Omar)

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