In addition, ‘security’ is not a finite goal in the same way that, for instance, school enrolment is. While it is possible to have 100% of children in school, it is difficult to claim that a population has 100% security. Security goals within a country are constantly evolving. Once battle deaths are reduced, the goal might shift to limiting the instances of coups. In turn, once this security goal is achieved, attention might shift to lowering crime rates – and so on. As a result, security goals are a constantly moving target, which may make their inclusion in any new development framework problematic. For example, Anatole Ayissi discusses how the nature of insecurity plaguing the West African sub-region is constantly evolving and has shifted in the last decade from revolving around natural resources and insurgent conflicts to criminal violence related to drug trade routes from Latin America to Europe (Ayissi 2008: 23). This moving target makes it difficult to develop static global targets both across regions, as well as within them.
How to quantify?
Following on from the challenges of defining security are the challenges of quantifying security. Even if a definition can be agreed upon, measuring progress presents a number of methodological concerns. As Akram-Lodhi points out, the MDGs assume that the goals can be measured, not just described (2009: 74). For example, one common indicator used in security and justice is ‘access’. This is the indicator being used by DFID, for instance, in relation to increasing women’s access to justice.
But what ‘access’ means is highly contested. Does it relate to usage rates? Geographic proximity? Affordabilty? Cultural and linguistic resonance? Or a combination of these? Similarly in relation to