Human Security and Sustainable Development in East Africa

Jeremiah O. Asaka, Alice A. Oluoko-Odingo, Jeremiah O. Asaka, Alice A. Oluoko-Odingo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032116983
• eBook ISBN: 9781000610109
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book investigates contemporary human security issues in East Africa, setting forth policy recommendations and a research agenda for future studies.

Human security takes a people-centered rather than state-centered approach to security issues, focusing on whether people feel safe, free from fear, want, and indignity. This book investigates human security in East Africa, encompassing issues as diverse as migration, housing, climate change, displacement, food security, aflatoxins, land rights, and peace and conflict resolution. In particular, the book showcases innovative original research from African scholars based on the continent and abroad, and together the contributors provide policy recommendations and set forth a human security research agenda for East Africa, which encompasses Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti.

As well as being useful for policy makers and practitioners, this book will interest researchers across African Studies, Security Studies, Environmental Studies, Political Science, Global Governance, International Relations, and Human Geography.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

1IntroductionHuman security and sustainable development in East Africa

Jeremiah O. Asaka and Alice A. Oluoko-Odingo

DOI: 10.4324/9781003221081-1

Introduction

In 1983, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) established a special commission under resolution 38/161 and charged it with the responsibility of crafting a framework for integrating Environment and Development (UNGA, 1983). The commission was named the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) but later came to be popularly known as the Brundtland Commission after its chairperson – Gro Harlem Brundtland – who was appointed by then Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. The commission finalized its work in 1987 and published a final report entitled Our Common Future wherein sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987).

The work of the commission has since inspired several past (e.g., Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, Commission on Sustainable Development, Millennium Development Goals, etc.) and current sustainable development initiatives particularly the post-2015 development agenda, which was necessitated by “the elusiveness” and “limitations” of Millennium Development Goals (Shaw, 2015, p. 3). The post-2015 development agenda is specifically framed around 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) with 169 associated targets all of which are meant to build on Millennium Development Goals (UNGA, 2015). Table 1.1 summarizes the 17 SDGs.

Table 1.1 United Nations sustainable development goals

Goal	Description
Goal 1	End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Goal 2	End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
Goal 3	Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Goal 4	Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Goal 5	Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Goal 6	Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Goal 7	Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
Goal 8	Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.
Goal 9	Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
Goal 10	Reduce inequality within and among countries.
Goal 11	Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
Goal 12	Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Goal 13	Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Goal 14	Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.
Goal 15	Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Goal 16	Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Goal 17	Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
Source: Compiled by author(s) based on information from United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs webpage accessible here https://sdgs.un.org/goals.

Looking at the 17 sustainable development goals detailed in Table 1.1, it is evident that they cover a lot of ground including but not limited to issues of peace, security, development, and environment all four of which fall within the scope of this book. Whereas some analysts do consider environment, development, peace, and security separately in their analysis, in this book we adopt a four-node nexus framework that takes all four concepts into consideration. A nexus analytical framework makes it possible to recognize and tease out linkages between environment, development, peace, and security to inform human security and sustainable development theory and praxis (Bassel et al., 2018; Bleischwitz et al,, 2018).

But before we delve deep into our analysis and discussion, it is only proper that we provide the reader with a road map for this chapter. The chapter is organized into six main sections. Following this introduction is section two which explores the link(s) between environment, development, peace, and security. Section three situates the book within East Africa. Section four lays out the organization of the book. Section five summarizes key messages contained in the chapter and offers a conclusion. Finally, section six records all the works cited in the chapter. In the next section, we explore the nexus between the four key concepts discussed in the book – namely environment, development, peace, and security – and in the process highlight the significance of considering them together as opposed to separately.

Linking environment, development, peace, and security

The relationship between environment, development, peace, and security has been recognized for quite some time. But as the Brundtland Commission report referenced earlier points out, the relationship between these four key concepts is complex and often misunderstood (WCED, 1987). In most cases, the link is framed as a two-node nexus between, for example, environment/conservation and development (Büscher & Dressler, 2007), security and environment (Dalby, 2009), ecology and security (Obi, 1997), development and security (Stern & Öjendal, 2010), security and conservation (Duffy, 2014), “peace and security”¹, and/or “peace and development”² among other iterations. This rather incomprehensive framing is also reflected in the major disciplinary fields of study associated with the four key concepts namely environmental studies, development studies, peace studies, and security studies (Brauch, 2008).

However, in the recent past, there has been a growing recognition of the need to pay attention to all four key concepts at ones particularly considering climate change (Asaka, 2018, 2020; Brauch, 2008; Bassel et al., 2018; Krampe et al., 2021). For example, the Norwegian Nobel Committee brought global attention to the significance of an expanded understanding of the link between the four key concepts when it awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”³ As Muhonja notes in her book entitled Radical Utu: Critical Ideas and Ideals of Wangari Muta Maathai, “for Maathai, environmental degradation and its effects on the continent of Africa were merely the symptoms of something more substantial, and so any real remedy required a consideration of the root causes” (Muhonja, 2020, p. 27). Maathai considered the contribution of poor/marginalized people to environmental degradation in Africa negligible compared to that of “governments and companies as well as indivi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of contributors
• List of acronyms
• List of illustrations
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction: Human security and sustainable development in East Africa
• 2 Human security
• 3 Securitization versus human security: An ontological argument
• 4 Interrogating the role of human security and human development in transforming refugees livelihoods in Kenya and Uganda
• 5 Elusive peace and conflict resolution in South Sudan: A human security alternative approach
• 6 Conflicting identities and insecurities?: Uncertainties about land rights in Tanzania and Ethiopia
• 7 Economic perspectives to human security in Rwanda
• 8 Human security implications of aflatoxins in East Africa
• 9 The governance dimensions of environmental security in 21st-century Eastern Africa: A review
• 10 Impact of climate resilient rural road transport on human security in Kenya
• 11 Climate change, food security, and the challenge of sustainable development in East Africa
• 12 Housing and human security in Kampala, Uganda
• 13 Exploring the urbanization-migration nexus in Nairobi City, Kenya: A human security analysis
• Index