Applied Research Centre in Human Security (ARCHS)

ARCHS works to understand complex human security problems and create transformational partnerships to develop ecologically, socially and economically sustainable solutions.

Human security is a people-centred approach to global security that recognises that lasting peace and social justice cannot be achieved unless people are protected from threats to basic needs and rights. Among the main threats to people's security are climate change, an inequitable global economic system, bad governance, corruption, abuse of human rights and violence.

We pursue our mission by: • Developing and promoting understanding of human security and sustainable enterprise • Catalysing change through conversations between people who wouldn’t normally meet • Exploring how complexity science applies to social systems

Our work is led by our core values • Action-oriented – there is an urgent imperative and something to be done. • Think systems – we see the world as a complex adaptive system so we focus on the links between issues. • Transformational partnerships across boundaries – no one has the answers so we must work in collaborative partnerships across boundaries, across and within sectors and organisations, to develop understanding and collectively discover solutions. • Focus on what works – look at successes not failures and stay grounded in practice. • People-centred approach – human security is a people-centred approach to global security. We take a people-centred approach to everything that we do, including how we work with our own team, partners, funders and sponsors. • Innovate – “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” – Einstein