The Vision of Human Security • Preventive: The human security approach insists on preventive measures which avert downside risks and mitigate their impacts from escalating(across insecurities) when they happen. An emphasis on early prevention rather than late intervention is a significantly more cost-effective way to deal, for example, with impoverishment, inequalities, and social exclusion than with the potential consequences of societal collapse and war. The preventive aspect of programming, for example, can be developed and reinforced by: a) early warning system, b) analyzing and targeting structural root causes of insecurities, c) targeting long-term solutions which address structural and behaviour conditions, and d) emphasizing on developing capacities through empowerment. 1.5 Components of Human Security The Human Development Report of 1994 also identified seven-interrelated components of human security, as shown in Chart 1.1. Overall, the above vision statement of human security and its operationalization provide an adequate basis for empirical research on the state of human security in Pakistan and areas of relative failure in providing a modicum of security to the people of the country. Chart 1.1: The Individual Set of Human Security Indicators Type of Security Main threats Requires Economic security Persistent poverty, unemployment An assured basic income––either from productive and remunerative work(through employment by the public or private sector, wage employment, or self-employment) or from government-financed social safety nets. Food security Hunger, famine, inability to purchase food, bad quality food, etc. All people at all times should have both physical and economic access to basic food–– that they should be entitled to food by growing it for themselves, by buying it, or by using the public food distribution system. Health security Deadly infectious diseases, unsafe food, malnutrition, lack of access to basic healthcare, women’s productive health, etc. Access to healthcare and health services, including safe and affordable family planning. Environmental security Environmental degradation, resource depletion, natural disasters, pollution, etc. A healthy physical environment, and security from environmental threats such as the degradation of the local ecosystems, air and water pollution, deforestation, desertification, salinization, natural hazards, and man-made disasters. 7