Further details on the linkages between remittances and food security in the ECA region are examined in Section 3. The prevalence of severe food insecurity refers to a person's capacity to access food (Bo* 2). It is based on eight simple questions about the occurrence of behaviors and experiences typical of situations in which the ability to obtain food is constrained. The combined set of answers to the eight FIES items, analysed through the lenses of rigorous methods based on item response theory, gives an opportunity for assigning each respondent a probability of belonging to any possible class of food insecurity.