Page 11 - Empowerment and Protection - Stories of Human Security

Comparing the different country chapters,
we conclude that the active roles of the state
and civil society respectively are both needed
to safeguard human security. The possibilities
of complementarity between protection and empowerment strategies is a neglected area of study and practice. From an operational point of view, this leads us to focus on the convergence of protection and empowerment strategies, and on how local national and international actors can
play speciic roles within that. In a 2009 guidance document, the UN Human Security Unit points out the following key questions as integral to the design of human security strategies:7
• What are the relationships between the speciic protection and empowerment strategies?
• Which protection strategies have the greatest positive externalities [effects] on empowerment?
• Which empowerment strategies have the greatest positive externalities [effects] on protection strategies?
The stories presented in the following chapters only scrape the surface of these important questions. We suggest that the understanding of human security should be further developed through the meeting of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ perspectives, in a process that is driven by real-life experiences and practice.
Stories of Human Security
Part 1 of this publication gives three examples of human security as a tool for analysing security from the ground up. The chapters from Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Occupied Palestinian Territory present views on what is considered a threat to security, on the state as a provider, and on coping mechanisms of interviewees.
Part 2 additionally provides examples of the ways that communities in Mexico, the Philippines and Zimbabwe have put human security into practice through citizen action and multi-stakeholder dialogues.
In part 3 on methodology, we share the accounts of the authors on how their respective organisations went about collecting the information. We discuss some of the considerations on gathering and presenting this information, where sensitivities of the subject matter were revealed in the process.
A concluding chapter, part 4 identiies themes across the different areas explored. It identiies ways
HUMAn SECURITy PRInCIPLES
People-centred: Human security puts people and communities at the centre of analysis and response strategies; they are both agents and beneiciaries of interventions.
Interconnected and comprehensive: Threats to human security tend to be mutually reinforcing and interlinked; coordination is needed to understand how they relate to each other and how they should be addressed as part of a broader strategy.
Context speciic: Human security acknowledges the variations from one situation to another amongst and within countries; response strategies need to be tailored to the situation and locally owned.
Preventive: Human security focuses on root causes and risk factors; it calls for early warning systems and coordinated early response.
Protection and empowerment: Human security highlights the mutual social contract between states and citizens. This implies an equal importance of protection strategies by top-down institutional and governance structures, and empowerment strategies that build
on the capacities of affected communities to cope with and respond to threats.
freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom from indignity:
Types of security and examples of main threats
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Economic security Food security Health security
Environmental security
Personal or physical security
Community security
Political security
Persistent poverty, unemployment Hunger, famine
Deadly infectious diseases, unsafe food and water, malnutrition, lack of access
to basic health care
Environmental degradation, resource depletion, lack of access to water, natural disasters, pollution
Physical violence, crime, terrorism, domestic violence, child labour
Inter-ethnic, religious and other identity based tensions
Political repression, human rights abuses
Adapted from source: UNDP Human Development Report of 1994.
that local perspectives presented here inform our understanding of key protective and empowerment strategies needed in a human security approach. Finally, we present a brief overview of recommendations drawn from these chapters,
in which we challenge not only UN agencies, governments, and academia but also ourselves and fellow civil society groups in continuing
the enhancement of human security through its practical application and awareness building.
It is our hope that the relections, conclusions and recommendations in this publication will serve to encourage practitioners from all sectors to continue implementing and learning from the people- centred, comprehensive approach that human security provides. In doing so, we should seek to take the concept out of the technical, bureaucratic resolutions and rhetoric, and ensure it becomes meaningful and tangible for people who experience varying forms of insecurity every day.