Human Security Initiative 2015 established

An international "Human Security Initiative 2015" group (HS - 2015 -) was created on June 17th, 2011. The group aims at deepening the concept of Human Security as a development paradigm in light of the post Millennium Development Goal (MDG) discourse. The group consists of around 20 international development practitioners, government officials and scholars.

The initiative group was born out of the international conference “Human Security – Towards Empowering Development” that took place on June 16, 2011 in Riga. The conference brought together prominent development economists and Baltic States’ and other European development practitioners at the NGO, government and EC levels to exchange information about the use of the concept of human security. The conference was hosted in Latvia, as it will be holding EU Presidency in 2015, at the time when the MDGs are aimed to be reached.

The main conclusion reached at the conference was that Human Security as a development cooperation concept has a lot to offer: it is human rights-based, participatory, takes into account not only objective but also subjective realities, steps over the irrelevant North-South distinction, offers customized solutions and value for money. Furthermore, it can be used as a tool for prioritizing action as well as assessing progress in achieving human security, that is, empowerment or people’s ability to take responsibility for their own and society’s well-being.

Having assessed the potential of Human Security as a post-2015 lead-concept, integrating and moving beyond the MDGs, the initiative group set two main goals: 1) exploring and deepening the concept of Human Security for development cooperation and 2) following and examining other discussions on the post-MDG agenda.

The conference was hosted by the Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia in cooperation with the Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation (AKÜ) and the Lithuanian National Platform of Development Non-Governmental Organisations.

For more information contact LAPAS at info@lapas.lv

Information provided by Ieva Snikersproge, LAPAS