NO PROSPECTS WITHOUT SECURITY
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LIVE IN SAFETY IN A STABLE ENVIRONMENT? WHAT MIGHT SEEM SELF-EVIDENT IN GERMANY IS ONLY BEGINNING TO EMERGE IN MANY COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD: A ROBUST LEGAL SYSTEM WITH TRUSTWORTHY SECURITY FORCES, AN ADMINISTRATION THAT DELIVERS THE SERVICES PEOPLE NEED, AND RELIABLE INSTITUTIONS THAT PROTECT INDIVIDUALS FROM CORRUPTION AND ARBITRARY ACTIONS AND WHICH ARE THERE WHEN PEOPLE NEED HELP. THIS IS A HUGE CHALLENGE FOR ALL STATES AND THEIR GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES.
In fragile contexts affected by conflicts and violence, it is particularly difficult to guarantee people’s safety and security. Around 1.5 billion people live in regions of this kind around the world. In most of them, rule-of-law structures do not exist or have been temporarily suspended. The consequences are far-reaching.
SECURITY AND STABILITY AS PRECONDITIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Where there is no security, people’s lives and health are at risk. Food supplies are often interrupted. Housing, schools and hospitals are damaged or destroyed, and important infrastructure for water supply, sanitation and power is either no longer available or severely impaired. As a result, economic progress slows, training comes to a halt, and long-term sustainable development becomes all but impossible.
Creating a secure environment and maintaining or restoring stability are thus becoming increasingly important in international policy as an absolute precondition for continued development. Alongside confidence-building measures involving the population and state institutions, the necessary structures must be established:
- Ministries, authorities and the police must be staffed with professional, effective personnel who uphold the rule of law in their work;
- Parliaments must provide democratically legitimated control along with civil society organisations; and
- an independent judiciary must be assured.
SHORT–TERM ASSISTANCE, CREATING LONG-TERM PROSPECTS
On behalf of the German Government, GIZ is helping partner countries address these challenges. In many cases, it is working with other international clients and organisations, and with the support of the private sector. Short-term emergency and transitional assistance provides people with the immediate essentials. Subsequent reconstruction projects stabilise political institutions, safeguard the livelihood of especially vulnerable groups and can create long-term prospects of a better life.
Together with its commissioning parties and partners, GIZ focuses on precautionary approaches designed to prevent conflict erupting in the first place, so that it can help establish lasting, stable structures and create livelihoods.
