21 November 2003: The Advisory Board on Human Security held a wokshop on the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS) at the United Nations headquaters in New York. The meeting was attended by the representatives from UN Agencies and Programms. Opening statements were made by members of the ABHS and its secretariat: Mr. S. Iqbal Riza, Chef de Cabninet and Under-Secretary-General of the UN; Ambassador Koichi Haraguchi, Permanent Representative of the Government of Japan to the UN; Mr. Bradford Smith, Vice President of the Peace and Social Justice Program at the Ford Foundation; and Mr. François Fouinat, former Executive Secretary of the ABHS. Opening remarks were followed by a Q&A period during which participants candidly reviewed the Guidelines.

The workshop highlighted the importance of the Report of the Commission on Human Security (CHS), Human Security Now and the concept of human security as they relate to the UN Secretary-General's call at the Millennium Summit for a world "free of want" and "free of fear." It was recognized that the Trust Fund, through the human security approach and its emphasis on an integrative framework of protection and empowerment requiring multi-faceted interventions can be a key instrument in providing concrete and sustainable benefits to people and communities faced with critical and pervasive threats.

The Guidelines of the UNTFHS, as reviewed and endorsed by the Advisory Board during its first meeting on 16-17 September 2003, seek to translate the recommendations and approaches of the Commission's report into funded project activities and practical actions. The Guidelines emphasize the need for projects to, among others:

1. provide concrete and sustainable benefits to people and communities threatened in their survival, livelihood and dignity;
   

2. implement the human security approach as embodied in the "protection and empowerment" framework by comprehensively including both top-down protection and bottom-up empowerment measures;
   

3. promote partnerships with civil socity groups, NGOs and other local partners;
   

4. advance integrated approaches that preferably involve more than one organization in planning and implimentation;
   

5. address the broad range of interconnected issues that take into account the multisectoral demands of human security, for example, conflict and poverty, displacement and health education and conflict prevention; and
   

6. concentrate on those areas of human security that are currently neglected and avoid duplication with existing programme and activities.

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