Beyond normativity and benchmarking: applying a human security approach to refugee-hosting areas in Africa

The concept of human security became popular in the 1990s as a new framework for conceptualising security, shifting its referent from states to human beings and expanding its scope. While acknowledging the widespread criticism and rich debate that developed around the concept of human security after its appearance, this paper analyses the context in which human security emerged as a concept and reviews its different usages with a particular focus on its application to Africa and refugee-hosting areas. It maintains that the contribution of this concept goes beyond the simple statement that security is a matter of people’s lives. Thanks to its focus on subjective understandings of security, human security can be used as an analytical framework to produce context-specific knowledge about security based on people’s perceptions of what makes them secure/insecure and on local practices of human security – what people do to feel more secure. The application of a human security framework to refugee-hosting areas in Africa would contribute towards enhancing refugees’ agency in a context often dominated by a victimising narrative, as well as providing a comprehensive understanding of security priorities, providing important information for more context-specific policymaking.