ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises the book’s contents and offers conclusions as a synthesis of the findings of different authors with varying perspectives on lessons learned from pandemics as a crisis. The editor extrapolates the findings to crisis management that affects human security by identifying the complementarity factors of proactiveness, reactivity, coordination, and unified action. This chapter explains that national and transnational collaboration is vital to manage a crisis in which the nation state’s government involves as many citizens as possible in decision-making and implementation, retaining a central role. The chapter criticises the notion of governments securitising a crisis and proposes that governance should focus on collaboration and investing in health security. Furthermore, the transnational nature of health threats, such as pandemics, and their direct effect on people’s well-being compromise human security. It requires a long-term vision in decision-making to ensure a rapid transition from emergency management to sustained response. A long-term perspective contributes to economic prosperity and promotes social cohesion, global stability, resilience, and human security in general. In achieving the book’s aim to produce knowledge relevant to human security in Africa, some important lessons were learned that could be applied to human security crises in general.
