What is a human security project? The experience of the UN Trust Fund for Human Security

Abstract

The idea of human security continues to gain global recognition, offering an alternative framework for the evolving challenges of the new century. While the human security literature has addressed the definition of the concept exhaustively, thorough analyses on efforts to operationalize it are scarce. The UN Trust Fund for Human Security is an appealing source of insights on the praxis of the idea because of the Fund's long-standing effort, which includes more than 190 implemented projects. The article is an examination of the Fund's experience operationalizing human security in three steps: principles, criteria, and actual project formulation. While asking what a human security project is, the article follows the process through which the results of the Commission on Human Security are translated into the Fund's guidelines, and how those guidelines are used to design activities. The revision highlights the strengths of a human security framework when addressing complex situations, allowing for multiple, innovative interventions under one umbrella of action. However, coordination problems and an evaluation of whether humans are more secure through the use of the concept remain operational concerns.

Keywords:

• international cooperation
• United Nations
• operationalization
• Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)
• UN Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS)

Acknowledgments

The present research was developed while the author was first a PhD candidate, supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, and then a Collaborator for Research and Education for Tohoku University's International Graduate Program on Human Security. Many thanks to all the persons who supported this work, sharing their experiences or commenting on preliminary drafts. Any mistakes or inaccuracies are my responsibility.

Notes

1 United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report: New Dimensions of Human Security (New York: UNDP, 1994); see also Jean-Baptiste Michel et al., ‘Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books’, Science 331, no. 6014 (2011): 176–82.

2 David Bosold and Sascha Werthes, ‘Human Security in Practice: Canadian and Japanese Experiences’, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft 21, no. 1 (2005): 84–101.

3 See, for example, Shannon D. Beebe and Mary H. Kaldor, The Ultimate Weapon is No Weapon (New York: Public Affairs, 2010); Department of the State, Leading Through Civilian Power: The First Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (Washington, DC: Department of State, December 2010), available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/153108.pdf.

4 Peter Burgess and Taylor Owen, eds., ‘Special Section: What is “Human Security”?’, Security Dialogue 35, no. 3 (2004): 345–71.

5 For the perspective of the ‘narrowers’, see Roland Paris, ‘Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?’, International Security 26, no. 2 (2001): 87–102; S. Neil MacFarlane and Yuen Foong Khong, Human Security and the UN (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006). For the ‘broadeners’, see Sabina Alkire, ‘A Conceptual Framework for Human Security’, CRISE Working Paper 2 (2003), Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford; Richard Jolly and D. Basu Ray, ‘Human Security – National Perspectives and Global Agendas’, Journal of International Development 19, no. 4 (2007): 457–72; Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh and Anuradha M. Chenoy, Human Security (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2007); Des Gasper, ‘The Idea of Human Security’, in Climate Change, Ethics and Human Security, ed. Karen O'Brien, Asuncion Lera St. Clair, and Berit Kristoffersen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 23–46.

6 Mary Kaldor, Mary Martin, and Sabine Selchow, ‘Human Security: A New Strategic Narrative for Europe’, International Affairs 83, no. 2 (2007): 273–88.

7 A similar opinion can be found in Tan Hsien-Li, ‘Not Just Global Rhetoric: Japan's Substantive Actualization of its Human Security Foreign Policy’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 10, no. 1 (2010): 159–87. General sources include Human Security Unit, Human Security for All (New York: OCHA, 2006); Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA), The Trust Fund for Human Security, 2009, http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/human_secu/t_fund21.pdf (accessed August 17, 2010); Marcello Balbo and Giulia Guadagnoli, ‘United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security Projects implemented by UN-Habitat in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Sri Lanka’, Case study prepared for Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007. A prequel to this paper can be found in Oscar A. Gomez and Chika Saito, ‘Implementing Human Security: Japanese Perspective through the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security’ (paper presented at the international conference ‘Mainstreaming Human Security: The Asian Contribution’, Bangkok, Thailand, October 4–5, 2007). In late 2011, a project of the Fund led by the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights was preparing a report on the region's experience titled ‘El enfoque de la seguridad humana desde tres estudios de caso’ (The human security approach through three case studies); at a glance, an early draft promised a more careful analysis of the intricacies of operationalization, but the final version was not available for the present analysis.

8 JCIE, Human Security in the United Nations (Tokyo: JCIE, 2004); Susan Hubbard and Tomoko Suzuki, Building Resilience: Human Security Approaches to AIDS in Africa and Asia (Tokyo: JCIE, 2008).

9 Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now (New York: Commission on Human Security, 2003).

10 Keizo Obuchi, ‘Opening Remarks. An Intellectual Dialogue on Building Asia's Tomorrow: The Asian Crisis: Meeting the Challenges to Human Security’, 1998, http://www.jcie.or.jp/thinknet/tomorrow/1obuchi.html (accessed February 20, 2009)

11 Ban Ki-moon, ‘Report of the Secretary-General on Human Security’, A/64/701, 2010, http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/64/701&Lang=E (accessed June 22, 2011).

12 After the end of Junichiro Koizumi era (2001–06), the country has had a different Prime Minister every year, including in 2009 a historic change in the ruling party for the first time in postwar history.

13 Keiko Hirata, Civil Society in Japan: The Growing Role of NGOs in Tokyo's Aid Development Policy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 172; Caterina Garcia, ‘Seguridad humana y politica exteriror japonesa: context, concepto y aplicación’, Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals 76 (2007): 79–95.

14 Commission, Human Security Now.

15 Ibid., 12.

16 Ibid., 132.

17 ABHS, ‘Minutes of the ABHS First Meeting’, 2003, http://ochaonline.un.org/ABHSandOutreach/BoardMeetings/FirstMeetingoftheABHS/MinutesFirstMeeting/tabid/2158/Default.aspx (accessed September 28, 2010).

18 Jeremy Shusterman, ‘An Interview with the Human Security Unit’, Revue de la Sécurité Humaine/Human Security Journal 2 (2006): 97–103.

19 ABHS, ‘First Meeting’.

20 Hsien-Li, ‘Not Just Global Rhetoric’, 169.

21 JCIE, Human Security in the United Nations, 19.

22 Ban, ‘Report’, 16–18.

23 The latest version of the Fund guidelines, which appeared after the core of the present research was undertaken, removed the requirement of donor approval. However, the reach of this change is still to be tested.

24 The files for each of the revisions are not publicly available, though most of the changes are noted in the minutes of the ABHS meetings, which can be found online on the home page of the Fund: http://ochaonline.un.org/OutreachandABHS/AdvisoryBoardMeetings/tabid/2155/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed April 15, 2011).

25 David Chandler, ‘Human Security: The Dog That Didn't Bark’, Security Dialogue 39, no. 4 (2008): 427–38.

26 Mark Duffield and Nicholas Waddell, ‘Securing Humans in a Dangerous World’, International Politics 43 (2006): 1–23.

27 UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel Report on UN System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and the Environment, ‘Delivering as One’, 2006, http://www.un.org/events/panel/resources/pdfs/HLP-SWC-FinalReport.pdf (accessed September 29, 2010); and Gomez and Saito, ‘Implementing Human Security’.

28 ABHS, ‘Minutes of the ABHS Eighth Meeting’, 2009, http://ochaonline.un.org/OutreachandABHS/Outreach/2009Activities/ABHSEighthMeeting/MinutesoftheABHSEighthMeeting/tabid/6487/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed September 28, 2010).

29 JCIE, Human Security in the United Nations, 33.

30 Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, ‘Human Security in International Organizations: Blessing or Scourge?’, Human Security Journal 4 (2007): 8–15.

31 Human Security Unit, ‘Human Security in Theory and Practice’, A Handbook for the TFHS, 2009, http://ochaonline.un.org/Reports/tabid/2186/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed August 24, 2010).

32 For instance, through the Network of Networks for Impact Evaluation (NONIE), of which the UN Evaluation Group is member, an initiative that makes introductory information for the task available – e.g. Frans Leeuw and Jos Vaessen, Impact Evaluations and Development (Washington, DC: The Network of Networks on Impact Evaluation, 2009). During the fieldwork in Colombia, the agencies also expressed their knowledge about other impact evaluation methodologies, not necessarily related to the one contained in the handbook.

33 Hubbard and Suzuki, Building Resilience 40–50.

34 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Internal Displacement Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2009 (Geneva: IDMC, 2010).

35 UN News Center, ‘Colombia Takes Steps on Killings but Security Forces still Culpable – UN Expert’, May 27, 2007, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34826&Cr=alston&Cr1 (accessed September 15, 2010).

36 Ana María Ibáñez and Andrea Velásquez, ‘Public Policies to Assist Internally Displaced Persons: The Role of Municipal Authorities’ (occasional paper, The Brookings Institution – University of Bern project on internal displacement, 2008), http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2008/1203_colombia_ibanez/1203_colombia_ibanez.pdf (accessed September 28, 2010).

37 It is worth noting that this lack of institutional information not only occurs in this project but in all the available reports about Soacha. A total of nine were revised, comprising three official reports, three reviews from UN agencies, two NGO reports, and one joint report. Only in the report by Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES) was there a description of the offices in charge of IDPs affairs.

38 See for instance the General Assembly discussions (Sixty-fourth General Assembly Plenary, 89th Meeting (AM), GA/10944, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/ga10944.doc.htm (accessed September 28, 2010). Also see Paris, ‘Human Security’, or Chandler ‘Human Security’.

39 Gomez and Saito, ‘Implementing Human Security’.

40 Ban, ‘Report’, para. 71–2.

41 Lant Pritchett, ‘It Pays to Be Ignorant: A Simple Political Economy of Rigorous Program Evaluation’, in Reinventing Foreign Aid, ed. William Easterly (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008), 121–44.