ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic required local, national, regional, and international coordination to ensure people-centered protection and advance human security. The eight case studies thus provide essential lessons related to the empowerment of people and communities who had to create new strategies for strengthening their own human security in the context of COVID-19. Measuring empowerment is in itself a significant challenge undertaken in this volume by examining empowerment in each case through the lens of Naila Kabeer's three parameters of resources, agency, and achievement. This approach revealed that there is no single model for empowerment, as mechanisms for empowerment are different and nuanced depending on the communities that implement them. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance of embedding mechanisms for empowerment within top-down emergency protection practices by prioritizing open access to information, inclusion and participation, accountability, and capacity building of local organizations. Empowering people simultaneously reinforces their resilience to risk, allowing individuals to exercise freedom of choice and preserve their dignity. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how countries in East Asia acted collectively to advance human security throughout the region. It remains imperative for governments to learn from experiences of the vulnerable communities during the pandemic to ensure their protection and empowerment post-COVID-19.
