A New Framework for Measuring Human Security

Human security is a multifaceted concept that encompasses the protection of people and communities from critical and pervasive threats to their lives, livelihoods and dignity. It emphasizes the harmful impact that a wide range of factors, such as violence, crime, wars, epidemics, environmental degradation, economic crises, institutional failures, inequality and discrimination, have on our capacity to enjoy rights and achieve our full potential.

Human security captures the complex and varied ways people experience insecurity in a rapidly changing world where interconnected phenomena can threaten peoples’ well-being. It also offers an approach for designing integral responses that protect people’s rights, empower communities and make institutions more responsive to their needs.

Human security has often been measured using a top-down approach, relying on national-level aggregated data and a limited range of indicators. However, to truly understand how safe (or not) people are, we need data that reflects the daily experiences of individuals and communities in their local contexts, and indicators that consider the various forms of insecurity they face. The framework summarized here
offers an innovative way to measure security ‘from below’, this means, capturing the multidimensional, differentiated, and context-specific experiences of security as experienced by people on the ground.

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