Institutional issues in human security; crop theft and tracker dogs in a Ugandan village

Geraldine TerrySchool of International Development University of East Anglia

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OVERVIEW

• Case-study location• Nexus of perceived human security threats• The dark side of social relations; example of

crop theft and tracker dogs• ‘Institutional issues’; in the background or

central to human security?

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STUDY LOCATION

LIVELIHOODS

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Weather shocks & stresses

Income poverty &

lack of assets

Food insecurity

Crime, social tensions &

conflict

Ill-health & medical

costsMain perceived human security

threats in Bubufu

Weather shocks & stresses

Income poverty &

lack of assets

Food insecurity

Crime, social tensions &

conflict

Ill-health & medical

costsMain perceived human security

threats in Bubufu

Lack of off-farm livelihoods

Acute land

shortage

Lack of services Gender

inequalities

Endemic corruption

Crop & livestock diseases

Weather shocks & stresses

Income poverty & lack

of assets

Food insecurity

Crime, social tensions &

conflict

Ill-health & medical costs Main perceived

human security threats in Bubufu

Lack of off-farm livelihoods

Acute land

shortage

Lack of services Gender

inequalities

Endemic corruption

Crop & livestock diseases

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Theft of food crops source of worry & cause of HH-level food insecurity Food-insecure, land-poor young men blamed but thieves seldom caught Self-help solution = tracker dog circlesBut use of tracker dogs may bring another type of human security threat; extortion

THE ‘DARK SIDE’ OF SOCIAL RELATIONS; FOCUS ON CROP THEFT AND TRACKER DOGS AS HUMAN SECURITY ISSUES

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KEY POINTS

• Social relations in the study location = source of threat as well as support; light & shade.

• Both crop theft and self-help responses to it ‘maladaptive’, i.e. may threaten other people’s human security.

• ‘Institutional issues’ often conceptualised as part of the context, e.g. in human security, rural livelihoods or climate change literatures.

• But in communities under severe pressure, institutional issues may be central to human security.