• Security and development policy

Security and development policy

How central are security and justice issues to development? Should they be primary considerations or are development actors correct to focus on more ‘traditional’ areas – such as health, education and livelihoods. Indeed, how do those from poor communities view security and justice issues – what priority do they give them in transforming their status?

The authors of this paper conducted a literature review in order to decipher whether development agencies should indeed consider security and justice as ‘core policy’. Their research identified three specific terms of reference to inform their conclusions:

• whether the poor consider security and justice needs as priorities
  
• the extent to which security and justice are necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (they underpin them, the cost of wars, effect which insecurity has on development, etc.)
  
• actual examples of the effect on the poor when security and justice needs are not met (e.g.armed violence statistics, effect on MDGs, etc.)

The authors offer a number of findings/conclusions:

• there is a growing body of empirical evidence to support the argument that shortfalls in security and justice are at the heart of poverty, underdevelopment and setbacks in meeting MDGs
  
• among the five themes identified by poor people as crucial to transforming poverty, two security
  and justice issues emerged relating to corruption and violence
  
• a study on links between the genocide and schooling found that school age children exposed to the Rwandan genocide experienced a drop in educational achievement of almost one-half year of completed schooling. As such, it concludes that the negative schooling impact of the genocide will have long term impact as it is likely to affect adult productivity and wages
  
• the literature is not clear what the best way is to map the policy terrain in terms of the parameters of security and justice programming - should crime, violence and corruption be the focus or should this include a broader emphasis on issues such as judicial independence, investment laws, etc
  
• the focus of much donor-supported security and justice programming is on the formal sector and on formal security and justice institutions. More knowledge is required about the security and justice practices which prevail in the informal sector and their consequences for poverty alleviation.
  

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