SADC must prioritise human security

Lazarus Sauti

The Southern African Regional Poverty Network, a non-profit organisation that promotes debate and knowledge sharing on poverty reduction processes and experiences in Southern Africa, says countries of the Southern African Development Community face major human security challenges that have the potential to reverse the region’s gains in the area of governance, stability and poverty reduction.

Human security threats take in inequality, gender imbalance, drug trafficking, poaching, terrorism and unemployment, poverty, HIV/AIDS and forced migration.

Officially opening the 31^st SADC Meeting on Defence Intelligence Standing Committee in Victoria Falls recently, Zimbabwe National Army Commander Lieutenant General Phillip Valerio Sibanda agreed that human security concerns have the latent to upset the stability of the region.

“Human security issues pose serious security and worsen the burden of conflicts resulting in under development, starvation and poverty, outbreak of diseases, destruction of the environment. These issues have the potential to destabilise the region.”

Accordingly, he called on the SADC defence intelligence standing committee to pay attention to these issues as they are often ignored with attention being put on politics.

“Contemporary challenges facing our region and mankind in general centre on human security. These challenges are often ignored as they are usually relegated to the periphery. Our focus has traditionally been entrenched on issues of politics, defence and security,” he said.

Was he not Ban Ki-moon, the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, who once said: “Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth…these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all?”

Countries within and across the SADC region should, therefore, connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security, and come up with solutions or recommendations based on current political and security developments in the region if the bloc is to successfully realise peace and stability.

SADC Defence Intelligence Standing Committee Chairperson Lieutenant General Calos Migual Sousa Filipe from Angola also agrees that “stakeholders in the intelligence and defence cluster in the region can analyse the political and security situation and assist decision makers in resolving issues of concern.”

For this to be in effect, Lt-Gen Filipe adds, member states must demonstrate the will to cooperate in political, defence and security matters.

“Cooperation in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts within and between states is essential for an environment of peace, security and stability in the region,” he says.

SADC member states must also recognise the multi-dimensional nature of human security; the need to safeguard both the security of individuals as well as of states; and the inter-connectedness of the security of African countries – for the “security of each African country is inseparably linked to that of other African countries and the African continent as a whole.”

Further, and according to SARPN, policy discussions pertaining to peace and security should recognise the contribution of human security considerations to regional stability. “It appears that there is presently insufficient focus on conflicts that are of a non-violent nature, and in particular, non-violent conflicts that are caused by or that give rise to worsened human insecurity among affected communities.

“Hence for instance, whilst the denial of secure food and shelter to certain groups as a result of their perceived political affiliation by the authorities in their country may not be a result of, nor the cause of violent conflict in the particular country, it may certainly lead to mass migration, resulting in increased poverty, increased vulnerability of girls and women, higher levels of illness from malaria, cholera and HIV/AIDS, loss in income, and greater lack of access to basic services (i.e. human insecurity), all of which ultimately have a destabilising effect on the region or country,” notes SARPN.

This calls for SADC countries to simply equate security with people rather than territories and also with development rather than arms; and development players in the region must, therefore, continue advocating for a greater focus on human security which is concerned with the security of individuals alongside traditional security which focus on defending borders from external military threats and which places emphasis on the military and the arming of the military.

The aim should purely be to safeguard the security of individuals, families, communities, and the state or national life, in the economic, political and social dimensions.

Seriously, the time is up for SADC to seriously prioritise human security.