Minerva, Spring 2008 (Volume 32) - Citizens for Global Solutions

For the poor, however, the major source
of insecurity is their own poverty, and the
social conditions that accompany poverty:
ill-health, illiteracy, exclusion and
inequality, including gender inequality. For
example, World Bank research shows that
poor women’s greatest fear is ill-health;
and a health crisis is the cause most often
cited by families who have fallen into
destitution.
As experience constantly reminds us –
from the global HIV/AIDS epidemic to the
hunger crisis … – individual insecurity on
a large enough scale becomes a threat to
national, regional and even global security.
And extreme poverty is on a vast scale:
over a billion people live on less than a
euro a day. Three billion people, half the
world’s population, live on less than two
euros a day.
All these issues, and many more, are
well documented. They are the subject of
endless discussion at all levels. There are
solid international agreements on how to
approach them. Yet somehow the political
will to respond is lacking. Governments
look first – and often only – at their narrow
self-interest. The international response is
accordingly weak and hesitant.
To give only two examples of this failure
of political will: first, world military
expenditure in 2004 was over $1,000 billion,
or 2.6 per cent of global GNP. One
country was responsible for nearly half of
that total. Second, in the same year, global
expenditure on international development
assistance from all countries was under
$80 billion. These grossly disproportionate
figures reflect the distorted realities we
live with. The major underlying threats to
security are social, while the overwhelming
bulk of expenditure on security is
military.
Security as a Social Issue
I would like to make three brief points.
• First, human security is essential for security
in the broader sense. Better health,
education and moves to reduce gender inequality
help to defeat poverty, exclusion,
powerlessness and deprivation. This in turn
reduces the sense of oppression and injustice,
and denies extremism and conflict the
conditions in which they flourish.
• Second, guaranteeing human security
does not require any new or unusual actions,
nor any especially expensive inputs.
There is a road map, in the form of the
Millennium Development Goals and other
international instruments.
• Finally, all nations must consider their
response to the question of national
security versus human security. The response
includes new thinking on forms of
governance, economic relationships and
international co-operation: it also supports
the multilateral approach to consensusbuilding
through the United Nations.
Protecting national borders no longer guarantees
security. Each nation has to arrive at
a vision of community that includes all its
people, the poor as well as the better-off;
and all its neighbours, in whatever part of
the world they may be. Security demands a
new commitment to multilateralism, and to
the value of the individual human being.
To take these points in order:
Deep and pervasive poverty is an ancient
problem, and to a great extent all societies
have accepted it as inevitable. The
traditions of all cultures, including the
prevailing liberal economic theory, call for
assistance to the poor; but liberal economics
assumes, in common with all other traditions,
that poverty and inequality are part
of the normal social and economic order.
The realities of the 21st century demand a
closer look at this assumption.
In the last third of the last century, the
most successful developing economies in
Asia and Latin America invested heavily
in social programmes, including universal,
free education for both sexes, and in health
care, including reproductive health.
A study by the Royal Institute for International
Affairs in London confirms that there
is a two-way relationship between economic
growth and health: “Life expectancy
and adult survival rates exercise a positive
impact on human capital formation and
hence on economic growth. In turn, sustained
growth rates allow for better health
5 • Minerva #32 • June 2008
conditions.” In plain language, that means
that healthy people make better workers,
better workers make stronger economies,
and stronger economies allow people to
live better and make good choices.
More specifically, the research of Nancy
Birdsall and Steven Sinding has shown
how better reproductive health, smaller
families and slower population growth,
together with universal education, were
part of the reason for the explosive growth
of the East Asian “tiger economies” in the
1980s and 90s.
Amartya Sen has shown how democratic
institutions – and particularly the inclusion
of women in the political process
– contribute to more equitable development.
Among other things, women tend
to focus on the essentials of education
and health care. Sri Lanka, Kerala and
some other states in India, have provided
examples of how to achieve high literacy,
low maternal and child mortality, smaller
families and broader life choices, even in
a low-income setting. The most important
factor was not ample resources so much
as a perception that human security was
of primary importance.
That leads me to my second point: there
is a clear and detailed road map to human
security. The road leads through social investment,
through ending extreme poverty,
to equitable development.
I was a member of the Secretary-General’s
High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges
and Change. After considerable research
and discussion, we concluded that development
is the indispensable foundation
for a collective security system, first, to
combat poverty, infectious disease and
environmental degradation which threaten
human security; second, to maintain states’
capacity to meet threats to security; and
finally, to address the environment in
which terrorism and organised crime can
flourish.
The Panel recognised that there were
many obstacles to the efficient delivery of
resources for development, including fair
treatment for poor countries in matters
such as trade and debt relief. There is also
an urgent need for better co-ordination