No development without Security Essay

Discuss this statement. In 2005, Kofi Annan, former United Nations General, made the memorable statement that there could be ‘no development without security, and no security without development’. This sparked a debate among multilateral agencies, governments and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) about the effectiveness and targeting of international aid. Kofi Annan and the UN observed that violent conflict, poor governance and human development, for example reducing poverty and improving education, were interconnected. As well as this, they found that progress towards human development is impossible with political instability and poor governance but at the same time, areas of deprivation and poverty create fear within communities that allows terrorism, civil war and crime to erupt. During the past decade multilateral agencies, such as the UN, the World Bank and major donor governments have acknowledged that peace, political stability and good governance are required in Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) for development. In Sub-Saharan Africa civil wars and regional conflicts have prevented progress because the resources that should have been devoted to development have in fact been lost through armed conflict. An example of this is Somalia, in east Africa with a Human Development Index of just 0. 284, where 20 years of civil war has created lawlessness, anarchy and a state without an official government, since 1991. Islamic insurgents including the Al-Shabaab group, with an estimated 14,000 militants and connections to Al-Qaeda, have controlled much of southern Somalia since 2008. Piracy on the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Somalia, is also a major problem in progress towards development. Dozens of foreign ships bearing food aid have been waylaid and about 10 billion dollars has been collected through piracy in ransom money and cargo value. This situation, affecting much of the coast surrounding Somalia, has prevented development from trade and foreign investment with an estimated 1. 25 billion dollars lost through potential trade opportunities. In contrast, the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland to the north of Somalia is having a construction boom. As well as this, the area has low crime rates and low fear of violence mainly due to greater group homogeneity but also because the port of Berbara, on the coast of Somaliland does not suffer from piracy so foreign aid is able to enter the country and hence development has occurred. Also, population structures within a country can impact upon the rate of development. In the past 40 years, 80 per cent of civil conflict outbreaks have occurred in countries with more than 60 per cent of the population under the age of 30. Many of these countries have been faced with autocratic governments, where life expectancies are, on average, 9 years less than democratically governed countries and infant mortality rates are 25 per cent higher than in democracies. However as these countries, with youthful populations, advance along the demographic transition, with declining birth and death rates, their vulnerability to civil conflict decreases due to lower dependency ratios and in turn a greater proportion of population at working age which allows for greater personal savings and government spending. A youthful population can be a tremendous advantage to society if they are educated, healthy and living in a safe world. This means that there will be many potential workers for the future, paying taxes, but most of these countries lack adequate economic capabilities to realise this potential. Afghanistan, in stage 2 of the Demographic Transition Model (DTM), has a population of 31. 9 million, a total fertility rate of 6. 8 and 45 per cent of the population under the age of 15. This is has been mainly due to the fact that educational and career opportunities were non-existent, before 1980, and it was seen that women should stay at home which has dramatically influenced the demographic and economic situation of the country. Although, some development has started to take place with improvements in health care, small rural schemes, such as drainage systems and health clinics, being built through the National Solidarity Programme and a Hydro Electric Power turbine setup in the Helmand region which produces 33 megawatts of electricity annually. Inadequate and unequal human development is also a cause of political instability as well as an outcome. Poverty, hunger, poor health and education and oppression can create popular resentment towards governments. Where these problems coincide with separatist tendencies, the result may be armed conflict and civil war. Hence, it is argued that to achieve security and peace human development issues must have priority. In many countries some development can take place without security but this can also be observed at a smaller scale. On a local scale, it is often believed that without security of land tenure, housing will not develop. The huge pace of urbanisation in LEDCs has shown that large areas of previously empty land have been overrun by the development of poor, informal housing. In Bangalore, over 50 per cent of informal, slum housing, greater than 6km from the city centre is not ‘declared’ and there is no security of tenure, yet the residents continue to build. This shows that they are rarely willing to invest into housing that is anything more than semi-permanent without the security of being able to make sure they remain. In Mumbai, 90,000 of these dwellings were destroyed and 300,000 people were left homeless. Although, in areas such as Rochina in Sao Paulo, the opposite can occur. Here, one area within the country received granting for some security has resulted in development. Buildings are now being built with bricks rather than wood, roofs have tiles instead of corrugated iron and sewage systems have been installed. The continued development of the area is reliant on further improvements in security. While multilateral organisations and many world leaders believe that development can only be effective with security and security can only be achieved with development, some objections are still present. Some NGOs fear that this belief will encourage governments in LEDCs to divert international development aid to military spending to defeat separatist groups and crack down on political opposition. This in turn could escalate conflict, violate human rights and set back the whole development process.