Revisiting Human Security in Africa in the Post-COVID-19 Era

In 2022, the JICA Ogata Institute launched the "Human Security Today" report, when the UNDP also published a special reports on human security, bringing renewed attention to human security in times of crisis. In Africa, which has been severely affected by the Ukraine crisis, climate change, and other factors following COVID-19 on top of its originally fragile structure, a human security perspective is effective to correctly capture complex threats and present appropriate responses to them through protection and empowerment.

From 2021, JICA conducted a research project on human security in Africa in partnership with Afrobarometer, an African think tank. The project included surveys on threats as perceived by individuals in five countries (Kenya, Gabon, Tunisia, Angola and Nigeria) and compared the results with objective threats defined in macro-level documents such as UNDP Human Development Report. Based on this comparison, the report identifies threats that have not been explicit, their priority levels, and available adaptation measures, and proposes initiatives necessary to overcome current crises and vulnerabilities. The report also describes the most pressing issues: the state of awareness of and behavioral change under COVID-19.