Human security and social development.

• Author: Jones, John F.

Global issues no less than community concerns influence social development, though the impact is not always apparent to those most closely involved. One of the harshest realities facing communities in the twenty-first century is the impact of a global economy as this is played out locally, whether on an American Indian reservation in Oregon or in a forced settlement in Ethiopia. Globalization means change, most dramatically demonstrated in those countries moving from central planning to a free market, like the present and former socialist countries in Asia, Central Europe, and Africa. Controversy surrounds approaches to economic reform. The field is roughly divided between those who endorse the "big bang" of immediate and drastic change, and those who prefer gradual development. (1)

The big bang or accelerated approach, heavily favored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, involves restructuring the economy in both its macro- and micro-economic policies, including privatization, decentralization, and deregulation, along with support for entrepreneurship and free market competition, all achieved as quickly as possible. (2) As envisaged by Richard Jackman, author of Economic Policy and Employment in the Transition Economies of Central and Eastern Europe: What Have We Learned?, the restructuring process proceeds through three stages: first, a shake-out of the old economy, eliminating waste and unprofitable operations; second, growth of private enterprises, recruiting the excess labor made redundant by reform; and third, establishment of equilibrium and competition in the new system, where pressure comes from the market rather than central planning mandates. (3) The approach to economic restructuring, beyond being greatly divergent, is highly relevant.

ECONOMIC TRANSITION: THE COMMUNITY IMPACT

The debate on the best approach to economic transition might seem purely academic and of little interest to social development were it not that the global economy affects local communities everywhere, and in disturbing ways. The persistence of poverty and the erosion of social services in transitional economies are cause for concern. There is general consensus among development scholars that in economic and political transition, social safety nets suffer, but how precisely countries are impacted depends on a number of factors. (4) The contrast was sharp between, on the one hand, the implosion of the former Soviet Union, with its broad economic and political revolution in the late 1980s and, on the other, China's narrower economic reform introduced gradually a full decade earlier. (5) Eastern Europe, torn apart politically after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and prodded towards economic stability by the IMF, most faithfully adopted the IMF/World Bank recommendations to speed transition until, in the case of the Russian Federation, the economy worsened to the point of near collapse and the IMF softened its demands. (6) Among the Asian socialist countries, the biggest player, China, largely ignored any calls from within its borders and from the outside world for instant capitalism or democracy, preferring to implement a type of reform sequencing. (7) African countries were variously affected by gradualist and big bang policies, caught between the World Bank's insistence on structural adjustment and the reality of national political and social restraints. (8)

The immediate consequences of radical economic reform are not really disputed. Any disagreement centers on the extent to which the safety nets are shredded, the type of development causing the most or least harm, and the prospects for rebuilding a welfare system in some new form. (9) Declaring that "development itself interferes with human and social development," Paul Streeten, author of The Social Dimensions of Development, asserts that "the poor shoulder the heaviest burden." (10) At present, the results of this world-wide movement to a market system are mixed. In some places, economic and political freedoms have gone hand-in-hand, but benefits have been widely scattered often resulting in greater injustice than existed before the transition. (11)

Major groups have been consistent losers in the shuffling of opportunities, rewards, and costs. Women tend to be losers in transitional economies. (12) For instance, after Mongolia threw aside the policies of the Soviet Union that it had previously favored, women's unemployment jumped to fifty-four percent of the country's unemployed population. (13) As social welfare safety nets are dismantled, others at risk include children, the elderly, the disabled, and the poor. (14) Transition to a market economy, while desirable or even necessary in view of global competition, has its dangers for many countries. The breakup of old systems before new institutions are put in place is likely to disrupt production and cause massive uncertainty about the future direction of the economy. (15) Policy makers all too often pay little attention to the sequencing of reforms when it comes to privatization, liberalization, and institution building.

The impact economic reform will have on local communities must be considered not in a vacuum, but rather in a global context. For communities caught in national crises, outside pressures can be enormous. A case study is never just a study of a community in isolation, cut off from the region, from the country, from the world. Just as national boundaries are porous, so too are town walls and village ditches. Ordeals need not be sudden or spectacular to impact localities. Environmental quality no less than conflict can curtail basic necessities like food, and affect cultural norms as well as socio-political structures in a community. (16) Assessment of local social development has to take into account national and regional links, and threats to a community's security should be considered in whatever form they come.

HUMAN SECURITY: A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS

To some extent the urgency of human security stems from fear of political instability, border conflict and social chaos following the disappearance of paradoxically stable cold war boundaries and (often forced) alliances. There are three major developments which have played a part in reshaping the notions of security and conflict resolution. (17) These are:

The shift in analysis from a narrow focus on military security in the defense of national sovereignty to consideration of internal sources of instability such as communal strife, ethnic unrest, poverty, unemployment, crime, and terrorism.

Recognition of the inevitable link between the welfare of citizens and the security of the state. Non-military barriers to stability can be economic, social, environmental or civil. Drug smuggling, illegal immigration, corruption, human rights violations, disease, and poverty can threaten a government no less than armed invasion from outside.

Increasing awareness that national and sub-national problems are amenable to, and sometimes require, international assistance or even intervention. Suddenly, regional humanitarian issues become geopolitical. Witness Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Iraq, and Liberia. (18)

Mass population displacement, taking the form of internal migrations and/or cross-border refugee movements, is a common consequence of in-country devastation. (19) While human security has a far wider scope than concern for refugees, there is little doubt that the multiple problems caused by the forced displacement of populations and the widespread phenomenon of asylum seekers in the 1990s has had the effect of forcing governments, international aid organizations, and U.N. agencies to examine their roles in humanitarian action, emergency relief, and conflict resolution. (20) State security has shifted from a focus on military defense from external threats to internal sources of instability, arising from economic, social and political considerations.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMAN SECURITY

The security of states brings the question of human rights to the center of the debate. Human rights are commonly divided into rights from (protection) and rights to (provision). (21) The first set of rights is intended to guarantee protection by the state or, where the need arises as it too often does, protection from the state. (22) This first set of rights involves civil liberties such as freedom of speech or freedom of movement. (23) The second group represents rights to services or resources, which the government must itself provide or make available through civil society (e.g. health care, employment, and education). (24) The need for proscription against things that should be done to no one...