23 May 2007: ISS Today: A Systems Approach to Human Security in Africa

23 May 2007: A Systems Approach to Human Security in Africa

 

Many theorists throughout the world have struggled to explain the cause of the current spate of unprecedented crises in sub-Saharan Africa. There are those like Walter Rodney who see Africa`s appalling troubles as a result of historical injustices and exploitation;(1) others, like George Ayittey, derive their arguments from an internalist perspective, maintaining that the causes of sub-Saharan Africa`s socio-economic and political malaise reside in the inability of African states to govern themselves.(2) The truth, however, is that sub-Saharan Africa’s problems are complex and unique: they are a result of multiple interactions between historical events, and internal and external factors. Unfortunately, most explanations have been concerned primarily with looking at variables independently. They have been trying to explain a forest by examining individual trees. One often comes across analyses and intervention processes that focus on isolated components such as economic policies, internal mismanagement, rule of law, health services, and poor governance. The consequence of such approaches however, is the construction of simplistic frameworks that do not represent reality with enough accuracy to make sensible intervention choices.

 

Colonialism, for instance, left many African countries not only underdeveloped but also with weak institutional and human capacities to run the form of government inherited from the colonialists. One consequence of this was a dependence of African countries on their erstwhile colonial masters for funding, which is the source of much of Africa’s current debt burden. The ideological wars of the East-West divide, too, nurtured the rise of dictatorships that continued the socio-economic and political exploitation of African resources whose net effects remain the entrenched vicious cycle of economic decline, reduced capacity and poor governance in most African countries. The upshot of the interaction between the various multifaceted challenges in Africa has been the continuing weakening of institutional enterprise and capacity to create integrated responses and to fashion viable solutions in the form of a developmental state. Ultimately, it is the interaction of systemic challenges and structures that have constrained Sub Saharan Africa’s development trajectory.

 

For instance, looking at Africa today, the problems of economic mismanagement, poverty, war and disease do not exist in isolation; they interact with each other: economic mismanagement in most cases results in mass poverty, which in turn leads to conflict over resources, conflict itself destroys the human capacity and institutional systems for the provision of services and also constrains the ability of individuals to engage in meaningful economic and social enterprise. This, in turn, relates to the inability to pursue education in order to qualify to join the labour force. Unemployed people are more at risk of being infected with HIV and becoming impoverished. In addition this internal situation operates within the broader historical bifurcation and a generally hostile global environment to exacerbate the vicious circle of depravation.

 

Intervention mechanisms therefore need to take into account these relationships. Simplified responses that target each aspect individually or lack awareness of the dynamics and full complexity of the problem, are likely to be limited in their usefulness. Michael Balle uses the analogy of someone training a horse to run faster, to demonstrate the limitation of addressing interacting structural problems individually.(3) He says trying to improve each ‘piece’ individually is ‘rather like trying to get a horse to run faster by teaching each of its legs to perform a more efficient movement. The legs might learn how to work perfectly, but the moment the horse is back on the grass and tries to gallop, it is not likely to go very far’.(4) An integrated or systems approach would focus on the interrelationships: how the horse’s legs relate to each other and to the whole horse. What Africa requires is a systems or integrated view to dealing with its human security challenges, an approach that sees the relationships between the various components (problems), and how they relate to the whole system. Efforts to solve each problem in isolation will not go far. There is a need to look beyond dealing with problems individually towards a broader perspective, where one problem is seen as part of a coherent whole. The ability to operate in a systems mindset is essential to gaining a better insight into the dynamics of an increasingly complex world.

 

Kisiangani Emmanuel, Southern African Human Security Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)