Journal of Human Security | 2014 | Volume 10 | Issue 1 | Pages 46‒58

DOI: 10.12924/johs2014.10010046

ISSN: 1835-3800

Research Article

Human Security and Developmental Crisis in the

Contemporary West Africa

Ayodeji A. Aduloju* and Omowunmi O. Pratt

Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria;

region. The destruction left by long years of protracted conflicts and the present state of devel-

opment is reason enough to warrant attention both from within and beyond. The study expounds,

operationalizes and clarifies the concept of human security and development, and how human

security issues lead to underdevelopment. The paper investigates the human security concerns

in the post-conflict period and also looks at the crisis of development in the sub-region. It

highlights details on the developmental crises that have bedevilled the sub-region and at the

same time exposes the threats these crises pose on national security and peace in the sub-

region. This paper concludes that there is no appreciable effort in operationalizing human

security in West Africa and this will lead to instability. The paper maintains that human security

issues now complicate the developmental crisis in the sub-region due to its ambiguity. The

resources. The sixteen (16) nations that constitute the

region include: Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic,

Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali,

d'Ivoire, Niger and Guinea. The geographical region of

impinged on development [1]. What remains of conflict

in the sub-region is not guns, bullets, bombs, machetes

and other weapons used in propagating conflicts and

© 2014 by the authors; licensee Librello, Switzerland. This open access article was published

under a Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

wars, but a huge decline on human and infrastructural

development. While conflict has reduced in the region

in recent years, the crisis of development which has

much more visible and define the contemporary West

Africa. These concerns continue to pose considerable

challenge to national and regional stability as well as to

human security [2].

The concept of security today in the international

system has taken on different meanings from the

traditional approach. This is due to the changing and

emerging issues; and challenges in the system that

states acquiring military power or engaging in 'hard

politics' alone cannot address. Amongst these diverse

Sierra Leone as well as armed attacks in Senegal,

Niger, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and more recently, Mali,

the North-Eastern part of Nigeria has worsened the

phenomenon of insecurity amongst the people, leading

to developmental crises. It is also imperative to stress

that developmental crisis could also lead to human

insecurity, as is the case in the Niger Delta region of

Nigeria, where severe developmental crises caused

armed and guerrilla warfare, thereby aggravating the

human insecurity conditions in the region. According to

cerns have future consequences on national security

and prospects of peace in the sub-region.

This paper investigates human security issues in

the post-conflict period and also looks at the crisis of

development in the West African sub-region. It pro-

vides a detailed analysis on the future threats posed by

the conflict situation on regional security and peace.

2. Defining the Contemporary West Africa

Religion and language (the spatial distributions of

which form formal cultural regions) are two of the

by political boundaries. These unnatural divisions are

often a source of tension and conflicts [4].

Since the end of the colonial period, West Africa

Mali. The origin of conflict in West Africa preceded the

legal initiative that brought about the integration of the

sub-region through the establishment of Economic

Community of the West African States (ECOWAS).

Invariably, there were conflicts in West Africa before

the idea of economic integration (the Nigerian civil war

which began in 1967 and ended in 1970 is a case in

point).

As a result of decolonization in Africa in the mid-

1950s and late 1970s, conflicts in West Africa became

the 80s and 90s (diamonds in Sierra Leone, oil in

Nigeria, gold in Ghana) which meant that both sides

supported tyrannical regimes in these countries be-

cause of their vested interests. Though these conflicts

varied in dimension, duration, scales and intensities,

the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone became a

challenge for the sub-region and the international com-

munity at large due to large scale humanitarian con-

cerns, high level of atrocities committed, inclusion of

children in the wars and the influx of refugees into

led the West African states, under the auspices of the

ECOWAS and the international community, through

the United Nations to intervene. The ECOWAS and the

UN's conflict resolution, management and prevention

helped put an end to the era of severe armed conflict

in West Africa and have since intervened in the on-

going conflicts in Mali and Nigeria.

Today, the sub-region has transited from the era of

civil wars to an era characterised by crises of devel-

opment, a remnant of the era of armed conflict. The

region is ridden with underdevelopment, forced migra-

tion, climate change, poverty, famine, drought, rising

47

that the sub-region is not immune to one of the most

pressing issues for human life; the challenge of HIV/

AIDS. This epidemic with a global scope, affects at

Corruption and underdevelopment have impacted

negatively on the health sector. Health is still not 'for

all', but rather characterized by glaring inequities

among socio-economic groups and classes. Similarly,

the adverse impact of climate change poses a further

threat to the issue of environmental sustainability and

to the achievement of the Millennium Development

Goals. This also presents a significant policy challenge

for a region that faces huge energy needs to power its

development and industrialization [6].

Human security is indivisible. A general dynamic

of equitable and balanced development is its best

cornerstone. The growing interaction of societies

on a worldwide scale increasingly demonstrates

the overall need for human security, though it is

not yet enough to prevent all forms of violence or

conflict. The world's future depends upon a

growing need for human security and a better

understanding of all the risks and threats that

affect populations and individuals [7].

The concept of human security has expanded the

notion of security. The traditional notion of security

was one where policy makers were more interested in

policing their borders to deter external influence and

threats. However, due to the changes occurring in the

international arena, where states no longer wage war

against each other; other emerging issues, threats

security led to the emergence of human security.

While the traditional concept of national security,

which dominated the Cold War era, was mainly

geared towards the security of states and aimed at

protecting their sovereignty and territorial integrity

from military threats, the advocates of human security

demanded that this traditional notion of security be

deepened and widened. Individuals were also to be

regarded as being imbued with security, and more

attention was to be devoted to their protection.

disease, and political violence were to be taken into

greater account [7]. In the nuclear debate, for ex-

ample, it has been argued that the stability and well-

Report on Human Security, drafted and championed by

former Pakistani Finance Minister Mahbub ul Haq with

strong support from economist Amartya Sen [9]. In

defining the concept, it should be noted that as with all

concepts, there is no universally accepted definition for

the term. Different academic discourses have framed

the term differently: as a new theory or concept, as a

starting point for analysis, a world view, a political

agenda, or as a policy framework [10]. Although the

definition of human security remains an open question,

into account the various possible threats at different

levels (local, national and regional). Human security

entails a global approach linking security, governance,

solidarity and development issues. It addresses security

in a broad sense that includes all political, economic,

social and environmental dangers [11].

The Human Development Report of 1994 entitled

'New Dimensions of Human Security' was undoubtedly

the first attempt to define the concept in a universal

way. Human Security is defined in relation to seven

• Economic security: assured basic income; access to

employment and resources.

• Food security: physical and economic access to food

for all people at all times. Hundreds of millions of

people in the world remain hungry either through

parasitic diseases.

• Environmental security: living in a healthy physical

environment which is spared from desertification,

deforestation and other environmental threats that

endanger people's survival.

• Personal security: individual security from physical

violence. Threats can take several forms, for ex-

ample: threats from the State, foreign states, other

groups of people (ethnic tension), individuals or

gangs; threats directed against women or children

48

threats to self (e.g. suicide, drug use, etc.).

• Community security: most people derive their secu-

rity from membership of a social group (family,

as crime rates, road traffic accidents, pollution, and in-

come inequality [14]. These indicators are now reg-

ularly incorporated in the annual issues of the UNDP

Human Development Report [15].

According to Akokpari [16], the fundamentals of

human security have been captured in a poetic, yet

practical way by Pettman [17]. Pettman believes

Human Security is;

job that was not cut, the gun that was not run,

the ethnic prejudice that did not result in vio-

lence, the dissident voice that was not made

silent, the landmine that was not sold and in-

stalled, the woman who was not trafficked

across state borders and sexually abused, the

agricultural product that was not dumped to the

detriment of the poor farmers, the short-term

capital investment that was not allowed to wreck

an infant industry, the addictive product that was

In short, human security is about eradicating threats

to dignified life that characterise contemporary society;

it is about securing life free from threats [16].

Human security for the former UN Secretary General

wellbeing of humans will be at the core of all policies,

be it social, economic, political, security etc., in order to

prevent the outbreak of conflict. He combined the total

fulfilment of three fundamental human rights in his

formulation of the notion of human security:

While freedom from physical hurt, injury, abuse or

threat constitutes the core of individual security, aca-

demic views of how the communal concept of human

to physical violence during conflict. Others have

argued that human security should include the notion

of 'structural violence,' referring to the structure of the

relevant political-social system (such as apartheid) or

the global trading system [20].

Fung [20] in his work brought to the fore the per-

ception of Frederico Mayor, the former UNESCO

Director General, who perceived Human Security to

coincide with the 'protection' and 'defence of human

dignity' in all circumstances. In this perspective, human

security' consists of preserving international stability on

the basis of the promotion of values such as:

• The supremacy of the law

• The respect for democracy

creating systems that provide people the foundation

for survival, dignity and livelihood. This definition en-

compasses the two core strategies of human security:

protection and empowerment of people [21].

In simple terms therefore, this concept emphasizes

that in order for people to be secure, their lives must

be free from any pervasive threats (violent or benign)

to their rights and their safety. It thus encompasses

both the traditional and non-traditional threats to

people's security [12]. The threat range includes the

following:

• Economic threats

• Food threats

• Health threats

• Environmental threats

• Personal threats

• Community threats

49

• Political threats

• Gender-based threats

• Demographic threats

Human security represents an effort to re-

conceptualize security in a fundamental manner. It is

primarily an analytical tool that focuses on ensuring

security for an individual, not the state. As noble as

this concept is, it has not been void of criticism since

it gained prominence in international politics. Human

security, some argue, is merely 'old wine in new

bottles,' combining traditional concerns about 'freedom

from fear' and 'freedom from want.' The former ad-

In further conceptualization of the concept, it is

important to state that there are at least two

approaches to understanding human security. The

narrow school, which is associated with Canada and,

to a certain degree, with the Human Security Network

[24]. Fundamentally, this school argues that the

threat of political violence to people, by the state or

any other organized political entity, is the appropriate

focus for the concept of human security [25,26]. This

perspective is mainly linked to the idea of freedom

Human Security [21] and the United Nations Trust

Fund for Human Security. More recently, it can be

argued that a third perspective or a second generation

of human security i.e. the European school, is

evolving which encompasses both the narrow and the

broad school [27,28].

Human security appears to appeal to 'middle

powers' neither the most powerful nor the weakest

states. When the UNDP definition of human security

was put up for discussion at the Copenhagen Social

Summit in 1995, no formal consensus was reached.

Although the conference's declarations included a

between national sovereignty and global action: the

EU countries argued for increased leverage was only

sought on national policies in the name of social

cept is its vagueness and breadth. If human security

is comprehensive, it may be impossible to prioritize

policies and actions. A series of associated terms have

developed; people's security, the security of displaced

people, livelihood security, environmental security,

comprehensive security, and health security. How can

all of these insecurities be grouped into a single

concept? Which of these threats should be prioritized?

Can any be excluded? A deep understanding of the

Human security concept, its various components, its

3.2. Development

'Development' is a concept that is contested both

theoretically and politically, and is inherently both

complex and ambiguous [29]. It would be an under-

statement to say that the definition of 'development'

has been controversial and unstable over time. Gore

[30] notes that in the 1950s and 1960s a 'vision of the

liberation of people and peoples' dominated the dis-

directly related to the achievement of poverty reduction

and of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) [31].

There is a third perspective by a group of writers

that Hickey and Mohan identified as 'post-modernists.'

The 'post-modern' position is that 'development' is a

'discourse' (a set of ideas) that actually shapes and

frames 'reality' and power relations. It does this

because the 'discourse' values certain things over

others ([32] p. 38). A common theme within most

definitions is that 'development' encompasses 'change'

in a variety of aspects of the human condition. Indeed,

one of the simplest definitions of 'development' is

50

change' is bound to be contested, as Kanbur states,

because 'there is no uniform or unique answer' [34].

Views that may be prevalent in one part of the devel-

who were able to monitor its fluctuations and analyze

changes due to movements in sectoral output, factor

shares or categories of expenditure. Yet, experience

has shown that increases in national income do not

necessarily lead to the solution of social, economic and

political problems. They remain, perhaps emerging in

different forms and changing their dimension in

countries with rising per capita income. Indeed, not

only does economic growth often fail to resolve social,

economic and political difficulties, certain types of

which of the currently rich and developed countries

appear as really desirable models? Some Western

countries with seemingly high incomes cannot be

recommended, owing to the damage to the ozone

layer from the release of industrial gases into the

atmosphere and the likely consequences through

global warming for all of us, particularly in the Pacific.

The widespread exposure to the modern diseases of

cancer, coronary heart disease and other health

problems related to high intakes of artificial foodstuffs,

For a region to be termed developed, certain

conditions should be attained by its citizens, to be

precise, enough food and other basic goods and

services, (human beings are required to consume a

certain amount of calories per day), minimum levels

of clothing, footwear and shelter, etc. The failure of a

state to attain such an income level which allows the

consumption of the minimum nutritionally determined

level of food intake would warrant its citizens to be

considered destitute and in absolute poverty. Another

basic necessity, and a precondition for gaining enough

income to rise above the poverty line, is access to a