Human Security in Action

Project Brief

The WANA Institute will produce ten short videos featuring a broad range of local human security actors. Various topics will include political participation, youth development, women empowerment, employment, education, urban planning, water security, and food security in Jordan. The videos will be disseminated through social media and will be accompanied by opinion pieces or links to previously conducted WANA Institute research if possible. The project will also result in the publication of a report containing highlights from the ten videos.

Focus Area

Human Security

Start date

01 Sep 2018

End date

30 Dec 2019

Funded by

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES)

Overview

In Jordan, threats to human wellbeing often relate to broader contextual issues, such as regional instability, violent extremism, the impact of climate change, the Syrian refugee crisis, and social injustice. Very little is known about the practical ways to increase local resilience to such issues. Thus, it is important to build a base of user-friendly knowledge from local practitioners and national experts who have worked in different areas of human security.

The WANA Institute will produce ten short videos featuring a broad range of local actors working on political participation, youth development, women empowerment, employment, education, urban planning, water security, and food security in Jordan. Each expert will offer a particular insight on human security work in local communities and how it relates positively or negatively to radicalisation concerns, instability, and resilience to local conflicts. The series will shed light on rarely acknowledged local aspects of human security through a bottom-up approach, and link them to broader national and regional concerns. The videos will be disseminated through social media and will be accompanied by opinion pieces or links to previously conducted WANA Institute research if possible. The project will also result in the publication of a report containing highlights from the ten videos.

What is Human Security?

Though there is no consensus on a definition of human security, certain features of the concept are generally accepted by leading scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners. First, the unit of analysis is the individual, not the nation, state, or any other group or institution. Second, human security includes, but is broader than, protection from physical violence. Other aspects involve access to basic goods necessary for life, such as nutrition, water, health care, clothing, and shelter. Exactly what these other goods include, however, is contested. In short, human security defines security at the individual level rather than the group level, and focuses on a variety of threats to human survival and wellbeing.

The term first attained significance in the mid-1990s, yes is now restablishing itself as an umbrella covering various efforts to enhance conflict resilience in local communities and measures to prevent violent extremism. Short-term and isolated initiatives to enhance resilience or prevent violent extremism remain short-sighted and limited in impact, unless they are coordinated under a human security long-term vision and mandate.