United Nations staff from across the Asia and the Pacific regions gathered in Bangkok, Thailand, on 26 to 29 October 2009 for the second in a series of Human Security Regional Training Workshops entitled “Applying the Human Security Concept in Project and Programme Development, Implementation and Monitoring.” The first of these was held on 8 to10 June 2009 in Accra, Ghana, for UN Country Teams in the Western and Central African regions.

Hosted by the HSU-OCHA, in partnership with ESCAP and the ROAP, and facilitated by Dr. Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh of Science-Po in Paris, the training included 25 participants from the following UN organizations: UNODC, UNDP, UNHCR, IOM, OHCHR, UNIFEM, OCHA, ILO, ESCAP and UNHABITAT as well as representatives from the Government of Japan, one of the donors of the UNTFHS. The training provided participants with an in-depth understanding of the application of the human security concept in project and programme activities, while promoting an exchange of views around some of the main challenges to human security in the region.

The purpose of the training was to: 

• To familiarize the participants to the concept of human security, its added value, and its complementary relationship to other frameworks.
• To provide an understanding on the application of the human security concept into project and programme activities.
• To promote exchange of views around some of the main challenges faced by UN Country Teams in developing, implementing and monitoring human security projects and programmes.

The Bangkok training put particular attention on the following principles:

1. Flexible and participatory training methodology where participants actively contributed to the learning process through debates, discussions and exchanges as well as group exercises and presentations.  
2. Distinguishing between the broad concept of human security and its potential use for policy and programming activities vis-à-vis the specific modalities and requirements for application to the UNTFHS.
3. Receiving concrete support on possible future UNTFHS funded project ideas as well as existing projects through the active participation by the HSU-OCHA throughout the training.
4. The preparation of the present Manual as a collection of ideas and inputs discussed during the training to be used by the participants for further advocacy on the human security concept and its usage for project and programme development, implementation and monitoring.
5. Instigating interest in participants to think about possible linkages between the human security concept and their own organization’s approaches, tools, and frameworks.
6. Forging inter-agency partnerships for analyzing current and emerging challenges at the individual, community, national, regional and global levels, and designing comprehensive solutions from the human security perspective.

The training was based on three distinct but related parts:

• Part 1:     Introduction to the Concept of Human Security and its Added Value.
• Part 2:     From Theory to Practice: Human security Operational Principles and Tools for Programming.
• Part 3:     Human Security as an Impact Assessment Tool.

To view the complete manual prepared by Dr. Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, in collaboration with Ms. Mehrnaz Mostafavi of HSU-OCHA and participants of the training workshop, click here.

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