ABSTRACT
The concept of human security accommodates the consideration of a wide range of threats to life, of which poverty is undoubtedly the most significant. Poverty kills directly in huge numbers when people are unable to secure sufficient food to live because they lack the economic means to purchase or produce it. This situation can arise in a number of ways which are considered in this chapter. A famine can occur when an acute shortage of food is incurred across a broad swathe of people. More persistent is the continual threat posed by hunger to millions of people across the world due to economic circumstances. In addition, people may be periodically exposed to life-threatening economic insecurity because of a sudden deterioration in economic circumstances due either to a recession or the imposition of trade sanctions for political reasons. Poverty is also an underlying cause of human death by other security threats. As Thomas states, ‘the pursuit of human security must have at its core the satisfaction of basic material needs of all humankind. At the most basic level, food, shelter, education and health care are essential for the survival of human beings’ (Thomas 2000: 7).
