Monograph 27: Security Development and Gender in Africa, Edited by Hussein Solomon and Maxi Schoeman

When Hussein Solomon and I were working on ‘Caring’ Security in Africa1 late in 1997, we both became aware of the need to pay much more attention to the link between security and development. This link is increasingly drawn in the developing world context, based on the assumption that one cannot have the one without the other. Although the two concepts are regularly linked, very little has been written on the subject of what this link actually means. How are these concepts linked, why, what are the policy implications, and what is the situation within Southern Africa?, are some of the questions that confronted us. The result was a decision to compile a monograph on security and development, but with the main emphasis on development, and particularly ‘gendered development’, in contrast to the previous monograph which concentrated on security. Both monographs focus to a large extent on women and gender issues in an attempt to ensure that research on issues related to security and development, considered to be crucial to the region, will be and remain inclusive of all the people of the region.

This monograph starts off with an exploration of the link between the concepts ‘security’ and ‘development’ by Schoeman. The argument she makes, is based on the assumption that a critical approach to security is enhanced by taking development into consideration. The idea of ‘human security’ becomes much more real when seen against the background of a multidimensional approach to development which is people-centred. In the last section of the chapter, Schoeman presents the idea of a ‘secure community’ as one way in which the Southern African region, through the Southern African Development Community (SADC), can link security and practice in a real and practical sense. In his response, Van Nieuwkerk raises critical questions about the value of the concept of a ‘secure community’ and also questions the role of the state in the region’s quest for security and development.

Linda Cornwell’s chapter serves as a bridge between the first chapter, which is still firmly rooted in the security discourse and the later chapters which deal with development policy analyses. The thread which runs through the chapters in this monograph, whether implicitly or explicitly, is that of emancipation and the various methods through which emancipation, within the spheres of security and development, may be achieved. Cornwell points to the relationship between gender, democracy and development, the latter two being possible ways to attempt the emancipation of women. These processes are fraught with problems, not least because of the poor understanding, especially on the part of policy-makers, of the impact of gender on social, economic and political relations. Of particular value is Cornwell’s discussion of the need to expand notions and practices of democracy in order to ensure genuine empowerment of women.

Although not an explicit theme of the chapter, the link with security – the need to ‘secure’ the environment within which people exercise their choices – is clear. Equally valuable is her constant reminder that most African states are weak states and therefore hardly exhibit the political will or have the capacity to serve as instruments of development. Hudson, in her response, picks up on the theme of the weak state, but highlights an issue not always dealt with or taken into consideration in the development discourse, and by implication in security studies concerned with human security. This is the often suffocating and sometimes blatantly threatening power of tradition as represented by and in traditional leaders when it comes to new ideas and approaches which might benefit members of their communities, particularly women.

Cornwell’s chapter and Hudson’s response are followed by two case studies based on Namibia and South Africa, focusing on women and the impact of certain development policies on women in general and on rural women in particular. Thompson looks at the issue of Namibian development policy against the background of the objective of attaining food security. Thompson also examines the way in which national development strategies in the Southern African region are ‘disciplined’ into following the hegemonic discourse on development, by examining aspects of Namibia’s development discourse. In her rejoinder, however, Parpart argues that Thompson’s emphasis on the hegemonic character of the international development discourse portrays Namibian policy-makers simply as puppets of global forces. Parpart contends that Thompson does not explore the possibility that these policy-makers may have their own reasons for adopting a neoliberal approach to development.

Sadie and Loots present a case study of projects that are part of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) in South Africa, and analyse and evaluate these projects from a gender perspective. Read against the background of Cornwell’s chapter, this analysis provides an example of the utility of using a gender approach, not only in terms of analysing development projects, but also in the necessity for policy-makers to be aware of the true requirements of formulating and implementing gender-aware policy. A ‘paper’ commitment to ‘gender equality’ does not necessarily translate into a genuine gender approach which is aimed at social transformation of traditional gender relations in order to emancipate women.

Sadie and Loots’ analysis provides a comprehensive overview of development policy in contemporary South Africa and, from their findings and conclusions, important guidelines for regional gender-based responses to various aspects of security and development may be drawn. In her response to Sadie and Loots, Pretorius points to the link between empowerment and emancipation and the need, within weak states, for women also to mobilise in order to work towards empowerment and emancipation. But ‘struggling for empowerment and emancipation’ in itself, and perhaps paradoxically, also requires the social space within which such a struggle may take place. Most rural women, living harsh lives of intense poverty and deprivation under traditional systems which do not allow space for fulfilling needs, have little incentive to struggle for more than their basic survival. It is in this sense and in this context that one has to return to security and development to ask the question: How can the insecurity of these women be changed into a form of security that would allow them to participate in, or to make use of the opportunities, however meagre or few, presented by various development policies?

The above is not a question that we have attempted to answer in this monograph. For us the challenge was to establish the link between security and development and to explore aspects and dimensions of development which could inform our thinking on security – its meaning and its practice. We have come to realise that we still have a long way to go. At the level of national governments, and at the regional level, there is no clear sign yet of a commitment to link security and development – to create a ‘secure community’ – within which security for and multidimensional development of all the people of the region, men and women alike, can flourish. It is our hope that this monograph, though, will contribute to attempts, at various levels, and by various groups to think and act progressively and innovatively in the quest for regional security and development.

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