Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Afghanistan’S First Female Deminers: An Analysis Of Perception Changes Among Deminers, Families, And Communities, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

For the first time in the thirty years of mine action in Afghanistan, as part of an initiative of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), in June 2018 a mixed-gender demining team was deployed by the Danish Demining Group (DRC-DDG) to clear landmines in Bamyan Province, in the central highlands of the country. A minefield was successfully cleared in six months. Following the success of the first project, in 2019 the same demining team was deployed once again to Bamyan to clear other hazards, including the last known minefield in the province. Bamyan has since been declared the first …

Advanced Training On Ammunition Identification And Disposal In Afghanistan, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

GICHD delivered an advanced level training course on ammunition identification and disposal in Kabul, Afghanistan on 16-29 April 2016. The focus of the course was to build on existing skillsets and improve the knowledge of the characteristics of NATO and other ammunition encountered in Afghanistan.

By not offering a formal IMAS explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) qualification and associated testing protocols, the course curriculum allowed flexibility. On the first day the program was customised to the assessed needs of the attendees, based on the feedback from interviews with them all. As a result the curriculum allowed, for the practicing of alternative …

Afghan National Mine Action Strategic Plan 2016-2020, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

This is the first mine action strategic plan to be developed in consultation with all relevant mine action implementing partners, including the United Nations, government line ministries, international donors and other stakeholders. It sets out clearer path for mainstreaming development into mine action, an aspiration reflected in the Plan's following five goals: facilitating development; engaging with other sectors; taking action to reduce the impact of mines and ERW; taking action to mitigate the consequences of mine and ERW accidents; mainstreaming gender and diversity.

Transitioning Mine Action Programmes To National Ownership | Afghanistan, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

In response to the limited guidance on the topic of transition to national ownership, the GICHD commissioned nine country case studies in 2011 to highlight different contexts, processes, challenges, good practices and lessons learnt from the process of transition to national ownership.

Based on lessons learnt and the good practices highlighted in the case studies, the GICHD, in collaboration with UNMAS, produced a Guide on Transitioning Mine Action Programmes to National Ownership.

Mine Action Support For Armed Violence Reduction: Mission Creep Or Responding To Wider Security Needs? Policy Brief, Gichd

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he policy brief summarises the findings of GICHD study into the role of mine action organisations in reducing armed violence.

The 12 case studies profile the AVR-related programmes of different organisations.

Download policy brief and case studies in English, with some versions in French and Spanish

Albania Mine and Munitions Coordination Office's and DanChurchAid's UXO hotspot clearance project in Albania

Action On Armed Violence's post-conflict rehabilitation and reintegration programme in Liberia

DanChurchAid’s SALW awareness raising project in Burundi

Danish Demining Group’s Community Safety Programmes in Somaliland and Uganda

HALO Trust’s reintegration of former combatants into demining in Afghanistan

Handicap International’s …

Land Rights And Mine Action In Afghanistan: Frequently Asked Questions, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

This document provides simple, practical guidance on land issues for mine action organisations in Afghanistan. It covers the following topics: why land matters for mine action; land rights and land release; what mine action organisations can do; and where to get additional information and support.

Land Rights And Mine Action In Afghanistan: Analysis And Programming Entry-Points For Mine Action Organisations - Final Report, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

In 2010, GICHD initiated a project on landmines and land rights in conflict affected contexts. The purpose of the project was to strengthen the capacity of mine action organisations to prevent and respond to land-related conflict before, during and after mine action operations. Since 2011, GICHD has been partnering with UN-HABITAT to undertake a series of land assessment and support missions in key countries toprovide mine action organisations with analyses of land related conflicts and practical guidance on how they can ensure their mine action operations “do no harm” and take land issues into consideration. This report summarizes the main …

Livelihoods Analysis Of Landmine/Erw Affected Communities In Herat Province Afghanistan, Gichd, Mine Action Coordination Centre For Afghanistan, Gender In Mine Action

Global CWD Repository

The Mine Action Coordination Centre for Afghanistan (MACCA) and the Department for Mine Clearance (DMC) are seeking to better understand the development outcomes of demining. They plan to undertake community-level surveys on a periodic basis to document these achievements and identify changes to policy and practice that could further enhance the contribution that the Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan (MAPA) makes towards Afghanistan’s development. The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), working within the framework of the MoU between the GICHD and the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), assisted with the design and implementation of a pilot project that …

Evaluation Of Dutch Support To Danish Demining Group In Afghanistan, Somaliland, And Sudan, Vera Bohle, Mohamed Ayan Handulle, Charles Lor, Ted Paterson, Mohammad Hamid Wardak, Anna Wood

Global CWD Repository

On 31 August 2007 the Netherlands Government (NG) decided to fund the Danish Demining Group (DDG) mine action activities in Somaliland, Sudan, and Afghanistan. The funding agreement runs from January 2008 to December 2011 and NG and DDG had preliminary discussions on the continuation of the project. The NG Decision of 31 August 2007 foresees an external evaluation initiated by the grant recipient.

The purpose of this evaluation is two-fold: (1) to evaluate progress towards objectives, thus contributing to improving the programme through documenting lessons learned and providing recommendations; and (2) to evaluate and inform NG and DDG on project …

Ddasaccident742, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

According to external investigation report, the accident happened during the prodding operation on a detected signal. According to the witness statements the deminer may had been failed to pinpoint the signal or he may had started prodding directly from the top of it and not maintained the right angle of the prodder. The density of rocks there and hardness of the ground required more attention to be paid by deminer during the operation, but it seems that he was working in hurry without considering standard operating procedures to be applied during signal investigation. The record of QA shows that this …

Ddasaccident722, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

According to external investigation report, the witness statements, injuries of involved de-miners and physical observation of the accident point, the accident occurred when [Victim No.1] was cutting bushes with scissor. During cutting off bushes in his clearance lane, he moved his right foot forward beyond the base stick, stepped on a Type-72 mine and caused it to go off. This accident caused traumatic amputation to his right foot below the ankle joint and left leg injuries. This also caused multiple injuries to the second deminer [Victim No.2], who was busy in marking the same lane in a 5 meters distance …

Ddasaccident710, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

According to investigation report and the observation of accident point, the accident occurred in un-cleared area within the minefield. The deminer was returning back from the rest area to resume the work in his clearance lane, he entered into the minefield, stepped on PMN2 anti-personnel mine and accident happened. The worksite was well prepared and the area was clearly marked in accordance to the [Demining group] SOPs. The deminer did not consider and use the clear access lane to proceed to his working area while he was well aware about the cleared/un-cleared parts of the minefield. He was not stopped …

Ddasaccident719, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 22 December 2010 team arrived to the area on 06:30 and started operation on 07:00 working for 45 minutes and then 15 minutes break, the second round started on 08:00 for the same working and breaking period. The third round started on 09:00, [the Victim] worked in his clearance lane using metal detector and then stopped on 09:25 wanted to mark his clearance lane. He picked up marking material/equipment attempted to mark his clearance lane. On the way back he slipped out from his cleared lane to un-clear area, his right foot came on a mine and the accident …

Ddasaccident740, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On the 13th Dec 2010 at 10:37, the deminer [Victim No.1] was operating in his clearance lane excavating a detected signal, his prodder touched on a subsurface tripwire of POMZ mine which caused it to explode. According to the investigation report the signal was not pinpointed correctly and the de-miner has used pick in contrary to set procedure, during the excavation, he pulled the subsurface tripwire connected with POMZ mine. The accident resulted in superficial injuries to deminer’s hands, left thigh and left side of abdomen.

Ddasaccident726, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The demolition team of [Demining group] arranged the smoke grenades in demolition pit in their CDS on 07:00 and then started Ordnance Disposal Operation, disposing of smoke grenades using electric demolition procedures. On 07:33 they conducted first fire by the exploder machine from their firing point. They waited for almost 18 minutes and then Technical Advisor started conducting Electric Misfire Procedures, he to correct misfire. On 08:10 the accident occurred and TA was killed immediately after accident.made manual approach

Ddasaccident753, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On the 7th Oct 2010 at 08:40, the deminer [the Victim] initiated a PMN anti-personnel mine with a pick outside of his clearance lane which caused the accident. The section leader was around 60 meters away busy in taking coordinates of a found mine with GPS and the team leader was busy in admin area updating the attendance sheet. The deminer was busy in the minefield without being observed by the command group for almost 15 minutes during the operation while the accident happened.

Ddasaccident640, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

According to the witness statements and the physical observation of the accident point, the accident happened while the de-miner was walking from the rest area to his clearance lane. He stepped on missed PMN anti-personnel mine in cleared area. Therefore, this mine was missed during the clearance operation. The exploded mine resulted in below knee amputation of deminer’s right leg, multiple injuries on his left leg, left foot heel, right hand palm and some minor injuries on his right arm. The de-miner was sent to Khost hospital after receiving first aids in the site. While accident happened the de-miner did …

Ddasaccident759, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 06 Sep 2010, when Mr. [the Victim] was working in his clearance lane and excavated a detected signal, during the excavation drill his excavation tool touched the mine and caused it to go off. According to investigation report the cause of the accident was the wrong excavation technique, as he started excavation drill close to the pinpointing target. He had gone down and did not expand the trench to allow entry from the side, which caused to stroke his excavation tool on the top of the mine. Due to the injuries sustained on his eyes, it seems that the …

Ddasaccident729, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 17 August 2010 while [the Victim] was working in his clearance lane, his excavation tool touched a mine and caused it to go off. According to the investigation report and the injuries sustained by victim deminer, it seems that the de-miner has excavated a detected signal carelessly and in contrary to their SOP. It means signal was not pinpointed correctly and the de-miner had used the excavation tool directly on the top of mine, so the accident happened. Unfortunately the de-miner did not put his PPE on, therefore, he got severe injuries on his eyes, whole face, neck, chest, …

Ddasaccident730, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 17 August 2010 Mr. [the Victim] the deminer was working in his clearance lane excavating a detected signal, his excavation tool touched a mine and caused it to explode. According to the investigation report the signal was not pinpointed correctly and the de-miner has used his bayonet directly on the top of anti-personnel mine, so the accident happened. Unfortunately the victim deminer was not fully dressed with PPE, so he got severe injuries on his eyes, whole face and finger of his left hand.

Ddasaccident658, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 15 August 2010 while [the Victim] deminer was busy in his clearance lane excavating a detected signal, his excavation tool touched a mine and caused it to explode. According to the investigation report the signal was not pinpointed correctly and the deminer has used his excavation tool directly on the top of anti-personnel mine and the accident happened. Fortunately the victim deminer was fully dressed with PPE, so he got a superficial injury between the thumb & index finger of his right hand.

Ddasaccident737, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It was 07:10 AM on 14 July 2010 while an anti-vehicle mine exploded under the back tyre of [Demining group] MDU-04 FEL machine during the ground processing operation. Fortunately no casualty is involved in this incident; only one tyre and a wheel were destroyed by the explosion. The main objective of MDU support to [Other demining group] DT was the possibility of deeper mines due to extra soil and gravel brought by seasonal floods in the site. Therefore, the depth of mines should have been expected more than default. This was the main issue which had not been considered by …

Ddasaccident750, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 10 July 2010 at 09:15 AM Mr. [the Victim] the de-miner of mentioned team was working in his clearance lane, excavating a detected signal, his pick touched on the top of a PMN 2 anti-personnel mine and caused it to go off. According to the investigation report the de-miner has used the pickaxe to investigate the signal instead of the bayonet and it seems as he used the pick directly on the top of signal, so caused the accident. Luckily the deminer was fully dressed with PPE, so he got a superficial injury on hand. Then the victim de-miner …

Ddasaccident758, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 7th July 2010 at 08:30 KAB 174 Rippers FEL of [Demining group] MDU-05 started ground processing operations in MF 0351, supporting MDG-20 in their clearance operations. During this operation a P2MK2 anti-vehicle mine exploded on its right back tyre and caused damages to it and its wheel. Fortunately there is no any casualty involved in this incident. According to the investigation report, this MDU started operations from the safe area and gradually proceeded into the MF, on the way back to safe area, the machine entered in un-cleared area, initiated a mine and caused incident. The machine operator was …

Ddasaccident763, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

According to the investigation reports, the accident occurred on 05 July at 10:00 during the break time of the team. The deminer [the Victim] left his clearance lane after the break started, and walked ahead around 100 meters towards the mountain top, where the boundary lane of Task # 0033 was located. He was carrying a saw and wanted to cut a shovel or axe handle there from the trees. But the area was mined and he knew about that. Around one metre away from the boundary lane of MF 0033, he started to cut a shovel or axe handle, …

Ddasaccident767, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The team started operations on 05:30 at the morning, everyone received briefing from the team leader. MU-07 was implementing a regime of 30 minutes work and 10 minutes break in this area, as it is a difficult and steep sloping task. It was 08:15 that the deminer [Victim No.2] detected a signal in his clearance lane and then identified that it was a POMZ mine after discovering a part of it. He called his team leader that he has found a POMZ mine and partially discovered it. During the investigation, he initiated the mine, causing it to detonate and the …

Ddasaccident718, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred on 22 June 2010, 09:30 AM in clearance lane of [the Victim], located in a steep sloping area within the MF. He was busy in full excavation there, suddenly some stones and soil slipped down in front of him and caused a PMN2 mine to go off. The ground where [the Victim] was working was of a loose and sliding nature, so it slipped down and directly hit the mine and caused the accident. So this was an unpreventable accident in nature, but as it seems from the location and severity of injuries, the visor was not …

Ddasaccident728, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 17 June 2010 at 11:00 [the Victim] was busy in his clearance lane in a steep sloping area, he lost his balance, got out from his clearance lane to unclear ground, stepped on a YM-I mine and the accident happened. According to the investigation report the team is walking around one and half hours from the base comp to the MF on daily basis which makes the deminers tired. The marking signs in clearance lane were weak and even not distinguishable; the gritty and sliding nature of the ground is another risk factor in this specific minefield. Extra safety …

Ddasaccident664, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 10 of June 2010 the first day of operation in task 0040, all the team members had been briefed by team leader about the location and extent of contamination in the area. The deminers were tasked to establish admin. parking areas, control marking and create the baseline. The team members also started clearance operations in some lanes and the deminer [the Victim] was tasked to follow the marking of already cleared lanes. But because of the break time he left the area and entered into the task seeking a shadow to take break there. He wanted to enter to …

Ddasaccident749, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 09:05 during the break time [the Victim] entered into the hazard area in order to proceed to a mosque located inside the AIF to get his break there. Unfortunately one metre away from the gate of mosque he stepped on an IED and caused it to detonate which resulted in a fatal accident. According to the statements of team leader and deputy team leader, they were busy with measuring Turning Points and tasking of the deminers in their clearance lane. After 5 minutes the deputy team leader and paramedic arrived to the site, cleared a lane towards the accident …