UNITED NATIONS
ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA
Opening Remarks Thokozile Rudvidzo Director, Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division (GPSPD) at the
CONSULTATIVE MEETING
Towards Developing an African Human Security Index:
On practices, methods, and designs
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
05-06 March 2020
Your Excellency
Mr Quartey Thomas Kwesi, Deputy Chairperson, AUC,
Ambassador Yukio Takasu, Special Adviser to the SG on Human Security,
Mr. Gerald Mitchell, Deputy Head of Office and Director of Political Affairs, UNOAU,
Mr. Markus Awater, Director, African Union Cooperation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,
Distinguished Participants
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am delighted to welcome you all to this Consultative Meeting on “Developing African Human Security Index”, taking place here at the African Union Conference Centre. Your presence at this Consultative Meeting in such large numbers testifies to the strong interest you have, as individuals and as organizations, in the future of our beloved continent, particularly with regard to a prosperous Africa.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank my in-law and good friend, Quartey Thomas Kwesi, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union. Your presence at this event testifies the cordial relationship and collaboration which exists between our two institutions in a number of areas, including jointly championing the African Human Security issues in our continent.
Let me also thank the UNOAU Team for their close collaboration and valuable inputs into the programme as a whole and this meeting specifically.
Let me also thank Markus and his team from the FES for all the support given to the participants of this meeting.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank all of you for finding time from your busy schedule to attend this CM.
The development of the Human Security Index was at the behest of the African Union Commission after a meeting between Mr Kwesi and Ambassador Takasu where they agreed the index was important for Africa. ECA working with UNOAU were requested to develop the Human Security. We have been slow to start but I assure you we are ready to get the project going and thus this meeting. Let me assure Mr Kwesi and Ambassador Kwesi your confidence in the development of the index was not misplaced. Working together with UNOAU, AUC and taping on the experience of the Human Security Unit at the UN HQ in New York, we will deliver a quality product.
Dear Participants:
The overall objective of the consultative meeting is to provide an overview of the principles of the human security approach and elaborate on the use of human security as a tool for developing effective policies and programmes for achieving Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.
The specific objectives of our consultative meeting are:
1. to probe human security concepts, practices, and methodologies;
2. to develop the set of recommendations that will form the way forward on the efforts of developing a methodology a); apply this methodology in two or three pilot countries and; b) use the experience to design a template for developing an Africa-wide human security index;
• this event to provides a useful platform for receiving feedback from experts on the suitability of the proposed conceptual design and methodology of the index taking into account data availability across member States.
Dear Participants
• While the idea of human security has been spreading globally and locally, albeit unevenly, few studies have analytically examined and responded to contextual threats for people-centered, comprehensive, context-specific and prevention-oriented analysis and exploring basic security questions.
• In addition, globally, few tools exist that comprehensively measure human security while no tools to date have an African context and specificity. Therefore, the proposed AHSI is an attempt to provide a holistic assessment of human security through its seven dimensions of (1) economic security; (2) food security (3) health security; (4) environmental security (5) personal security; (6) community security; and (7) political security. It also directly responds to both Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda on the centrality of human security as an enabler and precondition for sustainable and inclusive development.
• Against this backdrop, the ASHI is expected to guide member States on policy formulation and support monitoring of human security at different tiers throughout the African continent.
I will not attempt to go further into the details of what human security entails as you are experts in this room and we will hear from you what the index should cover to be relevant and useful for member States.
• In designing the Index, the UNECA aspires to align its initiative firmly with agreed UN priorities in Africa based on African priorities and aspirational goals, the AU-UN Framework on the Implementation of Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030, the AU-UN Framework for enhanced Partnership on Peace and Security in Africa and the priorities of the Regional Economic Communities and the Member States. Through this exercise, the UN team will attempt to demonstrate the nexus between Security, Development, and Humanitarianism.
• In the Statement of Commitment to Peace and Security in Africa (2004) , the African Heads of State and Government, recognize that “the foundation for peace and security in Africa is intrinsically linked to the concept of human security. Accordingly, we reaffirm our commitment to the promotion of a comprehensive vision of human security”.
This firmly endorses the need for tools such as the index we are working on to facilitate the ability of member States to promote human security.
• The African Agenda 2063 based on already existing programmes such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), and the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), to name but a few aspire to create an “integrated, people-centered, and prosperous Africa, at peace with itself,”
• It is also worth noting that, in June 2013, at the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), the African Union reaffirmed the centrality of human security as a framework for assisting African countries in achieving their development goals and its relevance to the SDGs. This is important considering Japan's prominent role as the founding member of Human Security Network, the conception and establishment of the Centre for Human Security, and the Human Security Index Reports (2005 and 2012).
We have all these frameworks and others that will help design the Human Security index – we are on the right path.
Dear Participants,
• As you may know, ECA as a regional UN and Pan-African body, conducts research on critical issues, advocates for sound policy formulations, and assists member states and collaborates with the AU and RECS in reinforcing their capabilities.
• Our newly branded vision focuses on generating ideas for a prosperous Africa. Our core functions are:
o Generating knowledge and applied policy research’
o Providing regional bodies and intergovernmental organizations platforms to discuss issues of common concern; and
o Providing policy adviser to member states and RECs.
• Now, more than ever, the involvement of think tanks, universities and RECs is critical to the development of a robust Africa-specific index
• We expect this consultative meeting to establish a knowledge platform that connects human security experts and activists and serve as a mechanism to facilitate an interface between African Civil Society and the Pan-African institutions, in particular the AUC, ECA, and the RECs
• By pulling our talents and resources together, we will significantly enhance our efforts in addressing the numerous daunting challenges facing our continent, particularly in the area of peace and security. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to stress the need for our full engagement at every stage of the development of this index in order to continually take the process forward.
• The ECA is highly appreciative of the valuable contributions of my team at the GPSPD division and those of you present here today that have been supporting them in their work. To conclude, I would like to express my appreciation for the financial contribution of FES through their sponsoring of participants which realized the full participation of the group before you now. I am confident that this meeting convened by our four organizations will contribute in an impactful way towards our continual actions aimed at addressing peace and development in Africa.
I look forward to these two days with high expectations and confidence of what we will achieve by the end of the day tomorrow.
Thank you.
