By Clement Henry

THE quintessence of the ‘Good Life’ is where all people — regardless of physical characteristics and social and political linkages — are able to live in freedom and dignity: free from poverty and despair, and able to fully develop their human potential. This is a goal of human security. In fact, human security is synonymous with the ‘Good Life’.

Human security, as an emerging approach, contends that fundamental to the ‘Good Life’ is an acceptance that people’s existence is characterised by three key freedoms: freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom to live in dignity. In its broadest understanding under these three heads, human security therefore encompasses economic and income security, food security, health security, personal security from violence, community and identity security, environmental security, and security of political freedoms.

The relevance of human security as a way of conceptualising and practising security became more apparent across the globe post-1989, at the end of the Cold war, when practitioners and scholars came to recognise that state security does not always correlate with the security of citizens. In reality, there are numerous instances when people have suffered and died as a result of poverty, hunger, communicable diseases, criminal violence and environmental disasters, even though state structures persist.[box type=”shadow” align=”alignright” width=”300px” ]CLEMENT HENRY is a Research and Development Specialist. Mr. Henry graduated from Andrews University with a Bachelors of Arts Degree (cum laude) in Theology, emphasis on Public Health, and from the University of Guyana with both a Post Graduate Diploma and Masters Degree in Development Studies. Mr Henry is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus. His doctoral dissertation (already submitted) is entitled ‘A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of the Dimensions of Human Security: the Case of Guyana’. He is currently the Project Manager of the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme. His publications include “An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid Flows to Guyana” in Selected Essay in Contemporary Caribbean Issues. [/box]

The paradox between security of the state and human security is consistent with local realities. This contradiction is evident in a Stabroek News article dated August 26, 2010, wherein a senior policy maker was reported as saying that “national security remained intact” notwithstanding the country’s homicide rate for that year was 18.6 per 100,000 population, robbery rate was 145.8 per 100,000 population, and 52.1 per cent of the robberies committed that year involved the use of firearms.

While one might be tempted to dismiss the senior policy maker’s conclusion on national security as being uninformed (I do not think it is so), what it really reveals is the gap between security of the state and security of the individual. As Dr Edward Newman, Professor of International Security, explains: “State security, while being a necessary condition for citizen security, is not a sufficient condition.”

And while traditional perspectives on security are tightly built around security of the state, human security is principally concerned with protection of individuals. It is not atypical, therefore, for traditional views of security to subsume, if not conflate, human security concerns with state security. Further, the human security perspective’s call for attention to individual security, as apart from state security, is based on the overarching prevalence of existential threats to the security of individuals emanating from both state and non-state actors.

Nevertheless, human security is not a substitute for national security. The state remains fundamentally responsible for security. Human security, however, is important to attaining the ‘Good Life’ because it highlights the various vulnerabilities and insecurities that people face in their everyday lives. It is people-centred, its elements are interdependent, and it is best achieved through empowerment and early prevention.

At the system level, a human security approach is relevant to the realities in Guyana. In this context, current drivers of human insecurity in Guyana include unemployment, poverty, inequality, social and political exclusion, diseases, flooding, interpersonal violence, trafficking of humans, and illicit trafficking in drugs and small arms.

It is worthwhile to note also that a 2012 UNDP Citizen Security Survey found that only 42.7 per cent of respondents felt secure living in Guyana. A corollary of this finding is that human insecurity among citizens poses a major challenge to realising the vision of the ‘Good Life’ across Guyana. Notwithstanding this challenge, human security is achievable in Guyana! However, achieving human security for all will require proactive approaches and responsive institutions that will protect individuals from risk and vulnerabilities, empowering them so that they become resilient to a wide variety of life-threatening circumstances in the economic, food, environmental health, physical, societal and political dimensions.

Because the elements of human security are interrelated, achieving human security also requires broad-based partnerships among a variety of actors from international and regional institutions, central and local government, community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector. It requires understanding the correlates of insecurity and acting proactively to prevent conditions that generate insecurity.

It is apposite to note, as a reminder, a United Nations General Assembly Declaration which states, “human security calls for people-centered, comprehensive, context-specific and prevention-oriented responses that strengthen the protection and empowerment of all people and all communities.”[a condition that undoubtedly leads towards a good life].

One of the challenges we will face in operationalising human security is our ability to measure human security, which is a multidimensional concept. However, measuring human security as a multidimensional concept is achievable via the application of statistical type operations. Towards this end, perception surveys have been used in evaluating levels of citizen security in Guyana, and similar approaches can be useful in measuring human security.

Measuring human security, in the final analysis, offers tremendous benefits for the development of evidence-based strategies to protect and preserve the citizenry. It can also support the identification of priorities, risks and protective factors.

Because human security is closely related to the concept of the ‘Good Life’, analytical innovations in this concept can be transferred to the latter, thereby offering Government practical means of assessing, measuring, and developing a road map towards achieving the ‘Good Life’ for all.

Comments can be sent to: towardsagoodlife@gmail.com