Exploring the Security-Development Nexus

Development and security are inextricably linked. A more secure world is only possible if poor countries are given a real chance to develop. Extreme poverty and infectious diseases threaten many people directly, but they also provide a fertile breeding ground for other threats, including civil conflicts. Even people in rich countries will be more secure if their Governments help poor countries to defeat poverty and disease be meeting the Millennium Development goals.(UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, UN 2004, vii)