The concept of security has often narrowly focused on issues
surrounding the protection of national borders from outside
threats. However, a richer idea of human security has become
increasingly important in the past decade or so. The aim is to
incorporate various dimensions of the downside risks affecting the
generalized well-being or dignity of people. Despite this rising
prominence, the discourses surrounding human security have
neglected to address the topic of gender, particularly how issues
of poverty and underdevelopment impact women s and men s
experiences and strategies differently.
Since its introduction in the 1994 UNDP Human Development
report, the idea of human security has become increasingly
influential among academics and international development
practitioners. However, gendered dimensions of human security have
not attracted enough attention, despite their vital importance.
Women are disproportionately more vulnerable to disease and other
forms of human insecurity due to differences in entitlement,
empowerment and an array of other ecological and socio-economic
factors. These gendered insecurities are inextricably linked to
poverty, and as a result, the feminization of poverty is a growing
phenomenon worldwide. The contributors to this volume rely on a
gender-focused analysis to consider a number of issues central to
human security and development in Africa, including food security,
environmental health risks, discrimination within judicial and
legal systems, gendered aspects of HIV/AIDS transmission and
treatment technologies, neoliberalism and poverty alleviation
strategies, and conflict and women s political activism.
The gender focus of this volume points to the importance of
power relationships and policy variability underlying human
insecurities in the African context. The insights of this book
offer the potential for an improved human security framework, one
that embraces a more complex and context-specific analysis of the
issues of risk and vulnerability, therefore expanding the
capacities of the human security framework to safeguard the
livelihoods of the most vulnerable populations.
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