| Title: | Modeling and Employing the Human Security Approach: A Health Security Perspective on the Current International Response to the HIV Epidemic |
| Citable URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/10427/35277 |
| Author: | Bhadelia, Nahid |
| Date: | 2005 |
| Citation: | Modeling and Employing the Human Security Approach: A Health Security Perspective on the Current International Response to the HIV Epidemic, 2005. Digital edition. Permanent URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10427/35277 |
| Rights: | http://dca.tufts.edu/ua/access/rights.html |
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Abstract: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Abstract: Like all neologisms, human security carries a lot of hope. Particularly in the sector of health, human security has introduced a new urgency, a greater political will and a sense of connectivity between the houses of 'haves' and 'have-nots'. The impact of global infectious diseases, violence and diseases related to poverty threaten the gains of development in low and middle income countries. What should a human security approach to health issues, particularly HIV, entail? Drawing on work by Sabina Alkire (2002), this paper asserts that human security interventions should be based on three principles: the focus on the individual as the nexus of analysis, the use of equity as the process, and the pursuit of institutionalized, responsive and preventive solutions. The importance and utility of these codes are elucidated by means of application to the concept of 'health security'. It is argued that a greater emphasis on social determinants of health, a higher rate of civil registration to ensure inclusion of vulnerable groups and a primary care approach to health delivery embody the spirit of health security. The validity of these arguments is tested by relating their relevance to the current international response to the HIV epidemic. This paper then concludes with some policy recommendations and emphasizes the central role of good governance in all human security programming.