United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan MACA MAPA MINE ACTION PROGRAMME FOR AFGHANISTAN Integrated Work Plan 1387 (1st April 08 - 31st March 09) Version 1.0 ﻣﺮﮐﺰ ﻣﺎﻳﻦ ﭘﺎﮐﯽ ﻣﻠﻞ ﻣﺘﺤﺪ ﺑﺮاﯼ اﻓﻐﺎﻧﺴﺘﺎن (United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (MACA House 95, Charahi-e-Zambaq, Wazir Akbar Khan ﺧﺎﻧﻪ 95، ﺳﺮﮎ ﺟﻴﻢ، ﭼﻬﺎراهﯽ زﻧﺒﻖ، وزﻳﺮ اﮐﺒﺮ ﺧﺎن P.O. Box: 520 Central Post Office Kabul – Afghanistan ﭘﺴﺖ ﺑﮑﺲ 520، ﭘﺴﺘﻪ ﺧﺎﻧﻪ ﻣﺮﮐﺰﯼ ﮐﺎﺑﻞ Tel: +93(0)70-043 447/+93(0)798-010 460 ﺗﻠﻴﻔﻮن: email: [email protected] +93(0)798-010 460/ +93(0)70-043 447 ﭘﺴﺖ اﻟﮑﺘﺮوﻧﻴﮏ: [email protected] Contents Page Foreword…………………………………………………………………………………...3 Mine & Explosive Remnants of War Contamination in Afghanistan…………………4 Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan……………………………………………….5 Mine & ERW Scope as of 1387 …………………………………………………………7 Priority Setting……………………………………………………………………………..7 Mine Action Strategic Framework……………………………………………………….8 Objective 1: Coordination, Transition & Capacity Building…………………………...8 Objective 2: Demining Operations………………………………………………………9 Detail of Priorities…………………………………………………………………………11 Quality Management……………………………………………………………………..13 Mine Detection Dog………………………………………………………………………13 Mechanical………………………………………………………………………………...14 EOD………………………………………………………………………………………..14 Medical…………………………………………………………………………………….15 1387 Integrated Work Plan Output……………………………………………………..16 Asset Allocation & Priorities……………………………………………………………..16 Regionalization……………………………………………………………………………17 Expansion of Community Based Demining Approach………………………………..18 Competitive Tendering …………………………………………………………………19 Polygon Survey……………………………………………………………………………19 1387 Available Resources……………………………………………………………….20 Commercial Demining Companies……………………………………………………...20 Objective 3: Mine Risk Education……………………………………………………….21 Objective 4: Victim Assistance…………………………………………………………..23 Objective 5: Stockpile Destruction………………………………………………………25 Objective 6: Information, Planning and Analysis………………………………………25 Objective 7: Funding Pledges for 1387…………………………………………………27 IWP Constraints…………………………………………………………………………...27 Annexes: Annex A: Number of Hazards by district Annex B: Planned SHAs/MFs for 1387 Annex C: Mine Action Contractors Regional Focus 1387 Annex D: Mine Action Contractors Team Allocation Plan 1387 Annex E: 1387 Deployment Integrated Work Plan 1387 2/28 Foreword I am pleased to present the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA) Integrated Work Plan (IWP). The 1387 IWP reflects responsibilities and commitments of Afghanistan in partnership with Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (MACA) towards the achievement of the mine action national benchmarks and towards a vision of a country free from landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), where people and communities live in a safe environment conducive to national development, and where landmine and ERW survivors are fully integrated in the society and thus have their rights and needs recognized and fulfilled. The IWP presented provides a yearly roadmap for supporting the achievement of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention), of which the government of Afghanistan’s became the 126th member in March 2003: - Clearing all known minefields in Afghanistan by March 2013; - Providing mine risk education to the Afghan people; and - Assisting those who have been injured by mines and UXO. As well as a planning towards meeting the Afghanistan Compact and the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) benchmarks: - By March -2011, the land area contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance will be reduced by 70%; - By end-2010, all unsafe, unserviceable and surplus ammunition will be destroyed. It is worth mentioning that the last known stockpiles of anti-personnel mines in Afghanistan were destroyed by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) with support from Afghanistan’s New Beginnings Programme (ANBP), and technical support and coordination assistance by MACA and Halo Trust in October 2007. This document lays the foundation for the development of Implementing Partners’ annual work plans and all mine action organizations coordinated by MACA, independently of the source of funding. The IWP covers the year 1387, which for mine action coincides with 1st April 2008 – March 31st 2009. This work plan establishes the milestones for Afghanistan mine action, and I am pleased with the ambitious and yet realistic targets that we have set for this year. As we look toward the nation’s future, MACA in close cooperation with the Government of Afghanistan is confident that with the dedication of the mine action service providers and the support of the international community, Afghanistan will achieve its mine action goals and free the land from the deadly threat of mines and explosive remnants of war. Dr. Mohammad Haider Reza Programme Director - MACA Kabul, 1 April 2008 Integrated Work Plan 1387 3/28 Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Contamination in Afghanistan The widespread and indiscriminate use of mines during more than two decades of conflict has turned Afghanistan into one of the most heavily contaminated countries in the world. More than 4 million Afghans are living in 2,494 contaminated communities. Records for over 700 km2 of suspected hazardous areas (SHA) exist, and additional hazards continue to be reported. According to the latest information available, mines and ERW killed or injured over 700 Afghans in 2007, or an average of about 50 each month. Although MACA will likely revise the 2007 figure as additional data is received from field offices, the number of Afghans falling victim to ERW and mines has been in decline over the years due in part to clearance and MRE efforts. The vast majority of the victims are male, and almost 50% of the victims are children. Figure 1 – Landmine & ERW casualties 1,200 1,000 800 Afghans Killed by Mines/ERW 600 Afghans Injured by 400 Mines/ERW 200 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Mines and ERW not only threaten Afghans with physical harm, they also rob farmers of their livelihoods and impede housing, resettlement, and the grazing of livestock. Seventy-five percent of the impacted communities are found in 12 of the country’s 34 provinces.1 Approximately 2.7% of all Afghans are severely disabled, with landmine and ERW accidents accounting for around 8.6% of this total.2 The impact of disability on economic participation is substantial, impoverishing survivors and their families, straining government and other health care systems, and limiting economic growth and poverty reduction. MRE) and victim assistance (VA) services have been provided to millions of Afghans. The Evolving Contamination Picture Over the past 18 years, the MAPA has cleared almost two-thirds of all the suspected hazards discovered to date, including all known contamination within urban areas. However, Afghanistan is a large country with many inaccessible areas due to ongoing conflicts and the absence of roads. Each year, new hazards have been discovered because (i) on-going conflicts, (ii) access of survey teams into previously insecure areas, and (iii) the return or resettlement of displaced people to new or abandoned communities, who subsequently encounter hazards. As a result, the records on remaining suspected hazard areas (SHA) continued to grow for over a decade, in spite of the clearance achievements. 1 These provinces are: Kabul, Parwan, Baghlan, Ghazni, Wardak, Kandahar, Herat, Nangarhar, Paktia, Takhar, Balkh, and Samangan. 2 National Disability Survey for Afghanistan, Handicap International and the Ministry of Labor Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled, 2005. Integrated Work Plan 1387 4/28 Figure 2 – Evolution of the contamination picture 1,200 1,000 High-priority still 800 uncleared 600 All High-priority on record 400 km2 of contamination km2 of Total contamination on 200 record 0 1993 94 95 96 97 98 99 2000 '01 '02 '03 This trend was broken with the completion of the Afghan Landmine Impact Survey (ALIS) in 2005, which reduced the SHA on record to 715 km2. However, on-going survey efforts have continued to discover previously unknown SHA. As of 31 January 2006 (used as the baseline for tracking progress against clearance targets), there were 719 km2 of known minefields and other SHA on record. This increased through 2006 and 2007, as new SHA were discovered faster than SHA were being cleared, peaking at 852 km2 in September 2007, before falling again to 702 in March 2008, and rising again in June 2008. Figure 3 – Area of suspected hazardous areas on record 900 800 700 600 square km 500 400 end 2004 end 06 Sep-07 Mar-08 A significant MAPA achievement has been the clearance of most of the dense belts of minefields around cities and strategic facilities, as well as all contamination in urban areas. Most of the remaining minefields are low density, for which it is difficult to establish clear boundaries. As well, thousands of small minefields and UXO hazards exist. Accordingly, over the past two years MACA has worked with the demining operators to reconfigure large demining teams into smaller and more flexible demining sections, many of which are cross-trained to perform explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tasks, further enhancing flexibility. MACA and the demining operators have also bolstered survey functions to ensure that expensive clearance assets are used only once the presence of landmines has been confirmed, and to release land as safe should investigations demonstrate that no hazards are present. Also,