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- Convenors:
-
Des Gasper
(Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Su-ming Khoo (University of Galway)
Michael Drinkwater (NA)
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- Format:
- Thematic Panel
- Theme:
- Human security and wellbeing
Short Abstract:
Part Two of a proposal from the Human Security Thematic Group, for a panel consisting of two sessions. Human (in)security has been subject of a 2022 UNDP Special Report and the subsequent HDR 2021/22. The panel connects issues in these reports to existing compatible practical approaches. This session looks at experiences in Colombia where human security is adopted as a national policy principle,
Long Abstract:
Keywords: human security; intellectual alliances; practical applications
This is a proposal from the Human Security Thematic Group, for a thematic panel consisting of two sessions, as permitted in the conference call for papers. The coordinators are the three coordinators of the TG: Des Gasper, gasper@iss.nl; Michael Drinkwater, drinkwatermichael@gmail.com ; Su-Ming Khoo, suming.khoo@universityofgalway.ie .
Given multiple overlapping global crises of conflict, environmental change, health, democratic legitimacy, and more, the concept of human security, and its partner ‘human insecurity’, are frequently turned to in both theorizing and practice. It has been the subject of the 2022 UNDP Special Report on Human Security and the subsequent Human Development Report 2021/22: Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping Our Future in a Transforming World. Currently (end-February) a progress report on Human Security is being prepared by the UN Secretary-General for the General Assembly.
The human security policy model that was presented in the Special Report added a focus on Solidarity, and a deepened emphasis on Agency, to the elements of Empowerment and Protection that have been familiar since the 2003 Commission on Human Security. How to fulfil these elements in contexts of 'unsettled lives' is the challenge.
The two-session panel connects the issues and ideas raised in this series of reports to possibilities for policy and action in various locations and levels, including by seeking linkages to existing compatible practical approaches, e.g. from Max-Neef, Scharmer, and applied capabilities approaches (especially collective capabilities), and potential partner theoretical/ methodological perspectives, including from feminist-decolonial thinking and transdisciplinary approaches.
In this second session two papers discuss experiences and reflections in Colombia, whose government declared in 2022 human security as a lead policy principle and where there has been extensive public and professional discussion.
Full abstracts for all five papers in the panel have been prepared and shared with the conference organizer (Dr. Mukherjee), but we have not as yet located the appropriate spaces to place them in the online system.
The proposal addresses Conference theme 3: Human security and wellbeing, and also Conference theme 5: Social solidarity, grassroots approaches, and collective action.
The panel is part of a work programme towards a book on the new generation of human security thinking and practice, that aims to draw on the Thematic Group’s sessions in a series of conferences, webinars and discussions. Previous meetings included considerable attention to conceptual architecture, as well as some case studies of policy practices. In this meeting the balance of attention shifts towards operationalization through partnerships with relevant available partner approaches and practical methods as well as further case studies of practice.
The design for the two sessions is this:
[SESSION 1: INTELLECTUAL PARTNERSHIPS IN POLICY APPROACHES
• Des Gasper: Vehicles and partners for Human Security thinking – thoughts from reviewing BRAC and Human Scale Development
• Michael Drinkwater: Reconnecting the Human Security agenda to capabilities theory
• Su-ming Khoo: Integrating feminist-decolonial approaches and Human Security thinking and practice. ]
SESSION 2: CASE STUDIES AND INTEGRATIVE DISCUSSION
• Oscar Gomez: The human security concept as a guide for development planning - The case of the Colombian National Development Plan 2022-2026
• Eduardo Wills: The importance and relevance of transdisciplinary methods to understand and apply a complex concept: Human security in the Colombian context.
• Plenary discussion, also in relation to publication plans. Alternatively, if the conference organisers suggest a relevant good quality paper(s) that has been separately submitted, it can be considered for possible addition to the panel.
Accepted papers:
Paper short abstract:
Human security, a holistic, human-centered concept is a transdisciplinary in nature. ¿Is transdisciplinary a valid method to consider? I discuss the fundamentals of transdisciplinary methods as proposed by Max-Neef (2005)a and Fals Borda (2008) to understand individual´s fears and uncertainties.
Paper long abstract:
Latest human reports propose human security as a holistic concept to tackle security issues from a human-centered approach ( UNDP Report, 2021, 2022 ). We deal with a transdisciplinary concept that understands security not from the military–state concept of defense of the territory and its borders from external enemies, but, it rather proposes to understand the fears and uncertainties that individuals and communities feel in their context.
A call for a renewal in the theorizing and practice of human security thinking and application has been emphasized. A discussion about the relevant and valid methods that should be employed for that purpose becomes an important issue. I propose that for such renewal, transdisciplinary methods for research (Nicolescu, 2022)and action must be made explicit as the methodological process for designing and implementing new strategies on public policy related to human security. Transdiciplinarity as a methodological approach becomes relevant when studies and policies are formulated in particular contexts, for instance in the case of land redistribution and restitution for victims of conflict in the case of Colombia. Human security problems are unstructured, messy problems and they are contextual by definition. To solve these problems it is important to involve the dimensions of being, feeling, and thinking of individuals and communities. They also require cooperative solutions. Human security problems cannot be solved if the needs, fears, and subjective insecurities are considered as dynamic processes. Fears of insecurities originate in the eye of the beholder and cannot be solved by fragmented, sectorial unilateral thinking and actions by state agencies that hardly connect. I stress the importance of assessing human insecurities directly from the dimensions of being, thinking, and feeling of the persons and groups involved. In this paper, I will discuss the fundamentals of transdisciplinary methods as originally proposed by Manfred Max-Neef (2005)a and Orlando Fals Borda (2008). Heidegger´s insight of dasein ( being in the world) and the concepts of authenticity (1968) are important to be considered.
References
Fals Borda, O. (2008). Action research in the convergence of disciplines. International Journal of Action Research, 9(2): 155–167.
Heidegger, M. (1968). What is called thinking? (J. G. Gray, Trans.). New York: Harper Row.
Max Neef, M (2005). Foundations of Transdisciplinarity. Ecological Economics. Vol 53.
Nicolescu, B. (2002). Manifesto of transdisciplinarity (K.-C. Voss, Trans.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2022. 2022 Special Report on Human Security. New York.
Paper short abstract:
National efforts to use human security ideas are scarce, and research about them is limited. This paper addresses this gap by documenting the experience of the Colombian government in preparing its 2022-2026 National Development Plan, which was partially based on human security ideas.
Paper long abstract:
National efforts to use human security ideas are scarce, and research about them is limited. This paper addresses this gap by documenting the experience of the Colombian government in preparing its 2022-2026 National Development Plan, which was partially based on human security ideas. The Plan consists of five transformations, one of which was “Human Security and Social Justice.” This is the section that received the larger allocation of resources. The “Human Security and Social Justice” transformation includes three sections of catalysts: (1) human security and well-being opportunities promotion enablers, (2) overcoming deprivations as the foundation of human dignity and the primary conditions of well-being, and (3) capabilities expansion. These sections encompass a wide range of goals and activities, including (but not limited to) poverty reduction, doubling access to the Internet, more access to higher education, promoting the popular economy, diminishing non-remunerated care hours, diminishing traffic accident deaths, and drastically diminishing maternal mortality.
The paper describes the conception of this part of the plan, its consolidation process, and the role of human security ideas in the outcome. Human security ideas helped the government intention of preparing a unique plan that focused on people and moved beyond sectoral silos. Human security language was instrumental in breaking with traditional views of security, usually presented as “democratic security” and focused on military means to deal with terrorism. However, the strength of the human security concept contribution dwindled as a broader set of issues was introduced in the Plan, both because it overlapped with other transformations and because of the overstretch of what human security meant in its own section. Interestingly, more emphasis was given to means for human security than threats, the most common use of human security ideas elsewhere in policy and research. Thanks to this emphasis on means, the human security concept was combined with a human development approach, offering an example of their synergies. Finally, the human security concept helped co-create the Plan at the national technocratic apex but did not reverberate with the general public or the sectors. Notably, the universal nature of human security was not enough to support the DNP Director’s intention to reduce the importance of differential considerations in development planning—i.e., prioritize the general demographic situation over attention to specific populations. It is uncertain how relevant the human security concept will remain in the Plan’s implementation.