Empowerment and Protection: Stories of Human Security

This publication shares and analyses people’s sense of threats and safety through the lens of human security. Spanning six regions of the world, it presents the accounts of people living in Afghanistan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Mexico, and the Philippines. As a people-centred approach to understanding threats to people’s livelihoods, safety and dignity, human security is useful as both an analytical tool and an operational approach for addressing socio-political problems.

Part 1 presents and analyses people’s reflections on threats in Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with an emphasis on the state as a provider of security and the ways that individuals and society as a whole cope with threats. Part 2 demonstrates ways that human security is operationalised through citizen action and multi-stakeholder dialogues in Mexico, the Philippines and Zimbabwe. In Part 3, we describe the approach, considerations and challenges in producing this information. Part 4 presents a conclusion on cross-cutting themes as well as implications for human security and the field of conflict prevention.