At
yesterday´s international meeting on Security in the Gulf of Guinea, convened
by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I built my intervention five security
dimensions that are critical to understand the root causes of the challenges
the region is facing.
They
are:
Widespread poverty, desperation,
shrinking opportunities for survival –example, less fish available to the
coastal communities – , advancing desertification, over-grazing and community
conflicts, high cost of living; this is the livelihood dimension.
Very high rate of population growth,
domestic migrations, rapid urbanization, transfer of poverty to the cities,
youth unemployment, marginalization and urban crime, armed gangs; the
demographics dimension.
Extremely weak State institutions in
all sectors, including in the areas of national and domestic security; this is
State ineffectiveness dimension.
Governance and democratic deficits,
human rights violations, widespread corruption and ineptitude, predatory
elites; this is the governance dimension.
Radicalisation and simplification of
the political-religious discourse; the influence of radical preachers trained
in and funded by Middle Eastern Countries; the identity and ethnicity as
instruments of power and exclusion; this is the extremist dimension.
