Poor governance and human insecurity are interlinked and have an impact on peace, security and development in Africa. There are several factors that can lead to poor governance and human insecurity and the following are cited as examples: lack of rule of law, corruption, poverty, political instability, etc.).
Because poor governance affects the lives of the population and might lead to human insecurity, there is a need to make and implement governance decisions that improve the well-being and needs of the citizens of a country, for example by ensuring their access to economic and social resources.
The Training for Peace Programme at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) participated in a training course, on “Governance and Human Security in Africa”, on 11-22 January 2016, in Nairobi, Kenya. The training was organised by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
The objectives of the course were to explore the development-security nexus, benchmark innovative approaches to good governance and build the capacities of practitioners and policy makers to craft people-centred development and security policies.
The training brought together approximately twenty five national and international state and non-state actors. The training course included the following thematic areas: Governance and Democracy; Understanding Human Security and Emerging threats; Governance Deficits in Africa: (causes and effects); African institution-building in the global governance system; Gaps in nation building and the rise of terrorism in Africa; Managing Elections; Climate Change Mitigation; the role of civil society and impact of local ownership in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding; E-Governance and Cyber security and how to craft National Development Plans and Human Security Strategies.
The participants discussed, among other topics: how to explore the concepts of governance and human security; emerging governance issues; identify and define emerging non-state actors and norms advancing both global governance and human security. The discussions explored the cause-effect relationships between governance and human security while touching on concepts of leadership, terrorism and radicalisation, climate change and sexual and gender based violence.
The participants also discussed the continental organisations and mechanisms that constitute the African Union’s African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Governance Architecture (AGA). These are in place to ensure a secure and stable environment for good governance and sustainable human security. The discussion concurred with the assertion that African leaders and the respective constituencies they lead could enable the making of good governance decisions and prevent human insecurity on the continent by changing their manner of governance.
The Training for Peace Programme at ACCORD is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
