In the past half century, heroic efforts have been made to extend the benefits of economic development to impoverished multitudes, but human security--a concept the UN suggested in 1994--remains elusive for too many. Like sustainable development, human security brings together issues and factors often thought to be opposites and in conflict such as development and environment, core and periphery, market and state. Thinking in terms of human security and sustainable development, this volume discards this either-or approach and delineates linkages between regional development and such human security dimensions as poverty and unemployment and access to health and education services. In particular, the volume considers the incorporation of poverty alleviation and environmental management into regional development policy.



The book provides a synthesis of the issues involved in poverty reduction, environmental management, and regional development. The volume also offers specific examples and case studies, including, for instance, contested river basins, the use of social mobilization in reducing poverty, environmental movements in India, watershed management in China, local government in Malaysia, and urban development in Kenya. Human security, the authors demonstrate, is attainable worldwide and can be achieved alongside sustainable development.