The project "Operationalizing Human Security for Livelihood Protection: Analysis, Monitoring and Mitigation of Existential Threats by and for Local Communities" focuses on the scientific conceptualization and transfer to practical utility of the concept of human - individual and population-centered - security for the definition, early detection, and effective mitigation of vulnerability to negative effects of global change (syndromes) and local threats, and thus the provision and stabilization of sustainable livelihood strategies.

Through its academic and practical work, the project participants endeavor to contribute to a) the academic debate on human and livelihood security, vulnerability and syndrome mitigation (mainly via publications and presentations); b) the operationalization of an originally academic concept to analyze and suggest solutions to key threats of individual/community survival and livelihood protection (via context-driven analysis, understanding and response); and c) the improvement of state and non-state actors' human security policies and programmes (via context-specific studies and policy papers on research-policy transfer).

In the context of its practical implementation, the main intention of the project is to strengthen the protection of affected populations' livelihoods, and to bring community and civil society actors and official institutions (at local, national, and international levels) closer together in understanding and responding to salient human security threats.

Geographic and syndrome focus

The project aims to develop sustained and participatory multi-actor cooperation to identify, monitor and alleviate threats to livelihood security. It is situated in three so-called "Joint Areas of Case Studies" (JACS) of the Swiss National Centre for Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South project - Central America and the Caribbean (Caracas), Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan), and the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia). In each JACS context, we will also highlight one specific syndrome context of NCCR North-South - in Caracas the urban and peri-urban context, in Kyrgyzstan the highland-lowland context, and in Ethiopia the semi-arid context. As much as possible, in each region attention will also be given to the other contexts, to gain more comprehensive insights in each country's human security situation and to allow cross-regional comparisons within each syndrome context.

Structure and approach

All three case studies (Caracas/Kyrgyzstan/Ethiopia) will follow the same process. In each case study, a small team of researchers has been assembled.
In a first step, the team conducts context-relevant research on the causes and effects of vulnerability and human insecurity (human in/security mapping), as well as past and existing mitigation measures at state- and non-state levels. The team gathers a wider group of representatives from all major stakeholders, which will address the same task in a participatory multistakeholder workshop. The research team will then integrate both its own and the multistakeholders? findings. How do researchers and stakeholders characterize the human (in-)security situation in a given geographic context?
In a second step, the research team selects key threats ? existential threats ? based on vulnerability criteria. The resulting "human insecurity cluster" is a set of core threats that each group defines as essential to monitor and to address in order to preserve basic livelihood security (i.e. survival). Thereafter the team develops response measures that need to be taken by local, national and international actors to reduce threats and strengthen the coping capacity of affected populations. The same task is subsequently tackled by the participants of the multistakeholder workshop group. Which are the main threats and most suitable mitigation strategies?
In a third step, the research team as well as the multistakeholder group design indicators and measures to monitor both the development of core threats and the degree to which response measures have been taken in reducing populations? human insecurity (existential vulnerability). The primary focus at this stage of the project lies on the development of strategies to share the project's findings and recommendations with local, national and international actors and to encourage their implementation. How can the continuous analysis of human security-based threat and response strategies be secured and its results be implemented?

 

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