The Pathology of Human Security in Africa: A Pro-Governance Perspective

Abstract

Following the 1994 UNDP Human Development Report, Human Security has become the moniker for critical theories that question the orthodoxy of state-centric security. Contestations over the phenomena that should be considered as threats have resulted in two main schools €“ the restrictive school that limits human security to freedom from fear and the inclusive school that conflates the freedom from want and fear and freedom to live in dignity. Africa has traditionally followed the inclusive approach however, similar to its record on development, actions for human security have hardly gone beyond rhetoric. This paper examines the relationship between governance, elementarily defined as the combination of activities calculated to ensure the effective functioning of a country and the pathology of human security in Africa. It proceeds on the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between the state of governance and human security in countries across the continent