Human Security Approach

Human security means freedom from want and freedom from fear. It can only be achieved by taking a more flexible, inclusive, and multidimensional approach to complex global problems. 

A human security approach leads to more sustainable and equitable solutions than a traditional state-centric approach because it: 

• Focuses on prevention and root causes rather than symptoms. 
• Works across sectors, disciplines, and often borders to produce more adaptive, coordinated, and synergistic responses.
• Involves individuals and communities most affected by complex global problems in the design and implementation of policy responses. 

A human security approach is particularly suited to problems that: 

• Threaten the safety and well-being of vulnerable individuals and communities 
• Cannot be resolved by a single agency, government, or country 
• Produce symptoms that show up in different places than the causes 
• Involve the state as both a perpetrator and a necessary partner 
• Pose adaptive rather than technical challenges