It is unlikely that much additional work would be needed for incorporating conflict-sensitivity into the post-2015 framework. Few would be likely to oppose the incorporation of conflict-sensitivity into interventions to achieve the goals, given the already widespread acceptance of this principle. The focus on ‘conflict’ rather than violence more broadly, however, does potentially limit the scope of this approach in building a security focus into the post-2015 framework. Moreover, while existing interventions would undoubtedly benefit from paying greater attention to conflict triggers, a conflict-sensitive approach would not engage with security-related issues through direct programming. Thus, while it is less controversial it is likely also less effectual in ensuring that insecurity is taken comprehensively into account in the post-MDG framework.
2. Post-MDGs to be framed as human security goals
A more expansive option proposed by some is that the new development framework should be framed through the lens of human security. In such proposals, human security is understood as freedom from fear and freedom from want, as set out in the 1993 UNDP Human Development Report. Critically, this understanding of security broadened the notion of threats from military threats emanating from one state against another, to an individual or human-centred understanding of security, with threats emerging from a diverse list of factors, such as environmental degradation, migration flows, infectious disease, poverty, lack of basic services (such as water, healthcare and education), as well as the more conventional threats of violence (UNDP 1994). A group of researchers at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) have argued that human security offers an appropriate theoretical framework for the post-MDGs to be developed (Köhler et al 2011). Such a framework is necessary, they argue, because ‘one of the reasons the MDGs are advancing slowly is precisely because an open and visionary discussion of specific policy paths has been lacking’ (Köhler et al 2011: 4). They argue that human security will assist in overcoming such shortcomings by giving the post-2015 development framework ‘a clear conceptual basis, making it more explicitly policy-oriented and taking a bolder, more openly progressive policy stance’ (Köhler et al 2011: 2). Because