Paper short abstract:

Human security is positively correlated to the sustainable development agenda. West Africa has experienced a number of insecurity issues that affected the progress of the sustainable development agenda in the continent.

Paper long abstract:

Peace and security is critical in the attainment of sustainable development as outlined under goal 16 of the 2030 agenda. Reviewing relevant literature and data from various sources on insecurity and the Sustainable Development Goals in the West African sub-region from 2010 to 2022, this paper presents selected dimensions of human insecurity and their implications to sustainable development. The dimensions of insecurity in the sub-region include coups, cross border crimes, terrorism, farmer-herder conflict and violent conflicts amongst others. The study further revealed that the prevalence of these dimensions experienced in the sub-region, coupled with other factors have consequences on the progress of all the sustainable development goals. Some of the consequences include increased in poverty prevalence in the sub-region, which hitherto declined from the 1990s headcounts. Other indicators such as school enrolment, under five mortality, maternal mortality, inequality, government investments on health and education amongst others, have started reversing in the sub-region. The implication of these are that the attainment and sustenance of the Sustainable Development Goals is under threat in the sub-region. The paper recommends that proactive measures needs to be adopted and implemented to help reverse the decline in development parameters in the sub-region.