A conference on human security in Asia was organised by the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung foundation (KAS) on November 11.

The conference provided the European perspective on human security and aimed to develop potential solutions for Vietnam.

Academics from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, Singapore, Thailand, India, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam discussed a number of issues, including human security in theory and practice, reducing the knowledge gap, and drastic measures to address human security issues at the global and regional levels.

Dr Wilhelm Hofmeister, Director of KAS Singapore, said the threats to human security in Asia are diverse, including the gap between the rich and the poor, climate change, and national and regional conflicts, which negatively impact on countries to a varying extent.

There is therefore a need to develop a comprehensive policy framework and expand regional cooperation to the issue of human security, he added.

Shahrbanou Tadjibakhsh, Head of the Human Security programme at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, highlighted that a successful programme on human security must be people-centred, comprehensive, specific and prevention-oriented, rather than solution-oriented.

The scholar suggested Vietnam integrate human security into policies for each sector and prioritise them based on people’s needs.-VNA