Chapter Five - Security and the Poorsecurity.jpg

 

Development agencies are getting into security. Much of the impetus for this came from Clare Short, the former UK development minister, as she attempted (at times seemingly single-handedly) to rebuild Sierra Leone after the disastrous civil war there. She made the startling realisation that you can’t do much economic development in a country that’s wallowing in anarchy. So she instigated a widespread programme of assistance to the military, police and security services in Sierra Leone in the hope that they would not only stop organising coups and counter-coups, but also that they could make a positive contribution to stabilising the country. Stability and security are now seen by most development experts as prerequisites for investment and economic growth, although some development agencies still baulk at the type of direct support to security agencies that the uk Government has pioneered.

          In addition to its role in underpinning economic development, security is also increasingly seen as an end in itself. When the World Bank took the trouble to ask poor people what they wanted from development, the resulting report emphasised that poor people worry just as much about crime, abuse by the security authorities, and war as they do about low incomes. Amartya Sen’s view of ‘development as freedom’ as discussed in Chapter 3 would also measure poverty not just as income but would also include:

Freedom from premature death in war

Freedom from intimidation by security forces, rebel groups or gangsters

Freedom to trade, save, farm and build without the proceeds being stolen or destroyed

          Some academics have started talking about these issues as ‘human security’ in order to distinguish them from the ‘national security’ questions that have traditionally been the concern of security forces in developing countries and which have often amounted to little more than keeping the current regime in power.

          The fact that all of this seems rather obvious does not mean that development agencies are any good at doing it. They acknowledge, in theory, that security forces should no longer be seen as sinister, dangerous organisations that waste government money which would be better spent on health or education. They accept that security forces should be treated as public services which, just like health and education, deserve development assistance to ensure that they are effective and accountable. But, perhaps for cultural reasons, they have huge trouble dealing with security people in practice and the record of ‘security sector reform’ programmes (as the jargon has it) is patchy at best.

          What this means is that there is huge potential for business to influence how the security sector reform agenda develops and secure development support for those business initiatives that contribute to stability and human security.

Thank you for reading the first few paragraphs of this chapter.  For more, you can click here to order "Make Poverty Business" from Amazon.

 

Chapter 5 – links and resources

 

The Business of Peace by Jane Nelson, published in London by International Alert, the Council on Economic Priorities and The Prince of Wales’ Business Leaders Forum in 2000 gives an excellent systematic account of the positive and negative ways in which companies can affect security, broken down by the type of business operation and the type of conflict you find yourself in. It includes several case histories. It is difficult to find but as, of March 2006, was available from Amazon with a few weeks’ delay.

          Joining Forces: From National Security to Networked Security by Rachel Briggs, published by the London-based think-tank Demos in 2005, looks mostly at security in the uk, but makes some useful general points about the need for government to co-operate with business in providing security. The book is available for free download at www.demos.co.uk/catalogue/joiningforcesbook/  where you can also purchase a hard copy. 

The book is part of a long-term project to examine the business case for working on security and to outline business’s role in security sector reform. Further reports from the project are expected to be published throughout 2006/07 and will be available at www.demos.co.uk .

The Peace Dividend Trust does interesting work to increase the level of backward linkages between UN peacekeeping operations and the local economy, with the aim of contributing to local development and stability. Their website includes a useful paper which contains many recommendations that could also be adopted by businesses operating in post-conflict countries.

"Fighting Poverty to Build a Safer World" by DFID gives the classic development donor view of the links between insecurity and poverty.  
                                                                                      
International Alert have published two excellent reports on the role of business in supporting peace.  "The Business of Peace" gives case histories of Northern Ireland and South Africa that we mention in "Make Poverty History" and the more recent and comprehensive "Local Business Local Peace" gives numerous case studies of the role of the local private sector in a wide range of countries.  For a detailed study of the links between economics and peace in a single conflict, see International Alert's "Economics and Conflict in Mindanao". 
                                                                                                                                                            "Voices of the Poor" from The World Bank emphasises the importance of security to the poor.                    
                              
"Keeping Your People Safe" by Rachel Briggs of the Foreign Policy Centre discusses the responsibilities that multinational corporations have for protecting their staff overseas. 
                                                                                                                                                                       BP in Azerbaijan emphasise the importance of cooperating with local communities to deliver mutual security.                                                                                                                       
The World Bank provide a resource of links and papers on the role of the private sector in conflict. 
                                                                                                                                                      Professor Paul Collier's paper "Doing Well out of War" provides a useful corrective to the naive view that the private sector will automatically contribute to peace, and discusses how the wrong sort of economic opportunity and business practices can sometimes cause conflict.