No Development without Security, No Security without Development Discuss this statement.

In contrast, the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland to the north of Somalia is having a construction boom. As well as this, the area has low crime rates and low fear of violence mainly due to greater group homogeneity but also because the port of Berbara, on the coast of Somaliland does not suffer from piracy so foreign aid is able to enter the country and hence development has occurred.

Also, population structures within a country can impact upon the rate of development. In the past 40 years, 80 per cent of civil conflict outbreaks have occurred in countries with more than 60 per cent of the population under the age of 30. Many of these countries have been faced with autocratic governments, where life expectancies are, on average, 9 years less than democratically governed countries and infant mortality rates are 25 per cent higher than in democracies. However as these countries, with youthful populations, advance along the demographic transition, with declining birth and death rates, their vulnerability to civil conflict decreases due to lower dependency ratios and in turn a greater proportion of population at working age which allows for greater personal savings and government spending. A youthful population can be a tremendous advantage to society if they are educated, healthy and living in a safe world. This means that there will be many potential workers for the future, paying taxes, but most of these countries lack adequate economic capabilities to realise this potential. Afghanistan, in stage 2 of the Demographic Transition Model (DTM), has a population of 31.9 million, a total fertility rate of 6.8 and 45 per cent of the population under the age of 15. This is has been mainly due to the fact that educational and career opportunities were non-existent, before 1980, and it was seen that women should stay at home which has dramatically influenced the demographic and economic situation of the country. Although, some development has started to take place with improvements in health care, small rural schemes, such as drainage systems and health clinics, being built through the National Solidarity Programme and a Hydro Electric Power turbine setup in the Helmand region which produces 33 megawatts of electricity annually.

Inadequate and unequal human development is also a cause of political instability as well as an outcome. Poverty, hunger, poor health and education and oppression can create popular resentment towards governments. Where these problems coincide with separatist tendencies, the result may be armed conflict and civil war. Hence, it is argued that to achieve security and peace human development issues must have priority.

In many countries some development can take place without security but this can also be observed at a smaller scale. On a local scale, it is often believed that without security of land tenure, housing will not develop. The huge pace of urbanisation in LEDCs has shown that large areas of previously empty land have been overrun by the development of poor, informal housing. In Bangalore, over 50 per cent of informal, slum housing, greater than 6km from the city centre is not ‘declared’ and there is no security of tenure, yet the residents continue to build. This shows that they are rarely willing to invest into housing that is anything more than semi-permanent without the security of being able to make sure they remain. In Mumbai, 90,000 of these dwellings were destroyed and 300,000 people were left homeless. Although, in areas such as Rochina in Sao Paulo, the opposite can occur. Here, one area within the country received granting for some security has resulted in development. Buildings are now being built with bricks rather than wood, roofs have tiles instead of corrugated iron and sewage systems have been installed. The continued development of the area is reliant on further improvements in security.

While multilateral organisations and many world leaders believe that development can only be effective with security and security can only be achieved with development, some objections are still present. Some NGOs fear that this belief will encourage governments in LEDCs to divert international development aid to military spending to defeat separatist groups and crack down on political opposition. This in turn could escalate conflict, violate human rights and set back the whole development process.