Activity 29160: Humanitarian Mine Action and Cluster Munitions Activities 2016-2020
Final Analytical Report September 2016 – August 2020 Submitted: 23rd December 2020
Table of Contents GLOSSARY...... 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 4 MULTI-COUNTRY PROJECT ...... 10 Gender and Diversity ...... 10 Innovation in urban clearance ...... 11 Building and strengthening MAG Information management system ...... 11 DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO...... 13 SUMMARY AND EVOLUTION OF THE CONTEXT: ...... 13 PROGRESS REVIEW & ANALYSIS OF RESULTS: ...... 14 OUTCOME 1 ...... 16 OUTCOME 2 ...... 19 OUTPUTS ...... 21 REFLECTION ON CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES ...... 24 Gender ...... 24 Conflict Sensitivity ...... 25 Innovation ...... 25 Sustainability ...... 25 Collaboration/coordination ...... 26 Collaboration with NL Embassy ...... 26 Risk analysis review ...... 26 IRAQ ...... 27 SUMMARY AND EVOLUTION OF THE CONTEXT: ...... 27 PROGRESS REVIEW & ANALYSIS OF RESULTS: ...... 30 LEGACY PROJECT ...... 30 OUTCOME 1 ...... 31 OUTCOME 2 ...... 32 OUTPUTS ...... 34 EMERGENCY RESPONSE ...... 38 OUTCOME 1 ...... 38 OUTCOME 2 ...... 39 OUTPUTS ...... 40 REFLECTION ON CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES: ...... 43 Gender ...... 43 Conflict Sensitivity ...... 43 Innovation ...... 44 Sustainability ...... 44 Collaboration/coordination ...... 45 Collaboration with NL Embassy ...... 45 Risk analysis review ...... 46 LEBANON ...... 47 SUMMARY AND EVOLUTION OF THE CONTEXT: ...... 47 PROGRESS REVIEW & ANALYSIS OF RESULTS: ...... 49 SOUTHERN LEBANON ...... 49 OUTCOME 1 ...... 51 OUTCOME 2 ...... 53 OUTPUTS...... 55 EMERGENCY CONTRACT: ...... 57 OUTCOMES ...... 58 Outputs: ...... 58 REFLECTION ON CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES: ...... 60 Gender ...... 60 Conflict Sensitivity ...... 61 Innovation ...... 61 Sustainability ...... 62 Collaboration/coordination ...... 62 Collaboration with NL Embassy ...... 63 Risk analysis review: ...... 63 SOUTH SUDAN ...... 65 SUMMARY AND EVOLUTION OF THE CONTEXT...... 65 PROGRESS REVIEW & ANALYSIS OF RESULTS ...... 69 OUTCOME 1 ...... 71 OUTCOME 2 ...... 73 OUTPUTS...... 77 REFLECTION ON CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES ...... 79 Gender ...... 79 Conflict Sensitivity ...... 80 Innovation ...... 81 Sustainability ...... 81 Collaboration/coordination ...... 81 Collaboration with NL Embassy...... 81 Risk analysis review: ...... 82 GENERAL REFLECTION ON ADAPTIVE PROGRAMMING & MEL ...... 83 CONCLUSION ...... 87
COVER PHOTO: MAG deminer conducting clearance of Usman’s orchard in Zalan village, Sharbazher district.
Glossary
Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention …………………………….……………………………………………..………….. APBMC Battle Area Clearance …..……… ………………………………………………….………………………………..….….….….. BAC Casualty Evacuation ………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………..….. CESEVAC Convention on Cluster Munitions ………………………..…………………………………………………………….……… CCM Country Director ………….………………………………………………………………………………………….……...….……… CD Community Focal Point ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… CFP Community Liaison ………..……………………………………………………………………………………….…………..……… CL Directorate of Mine Action (Iraq) ……………………………………………………..……………………….………….…… DMA Explosive Ordnance Disposal ……………………………………………………….……………………………………….….… EOD Explosive Ordnance Risk Education ……………………………………….…………………………………………..….…… EORE Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo……………..………………………………………...… FARDC Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining ……………………………………………...……….…. GICHD Gender and Mine Action Programme ………………………………………………………..………………….…………… GMAP Humanitarian Mine Action ……………………………………………………………………………………………….…………. HMA Internally Displaced People ………………………………………………………………..………………………………...……. IDPs
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Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Authority …………………………………...... IKMAA Information Management ………………………………………….………….………………………………………….....…... IM Information Management System for Mine Action ………………………………………………………….…………. IMSMA Lebanese Mine Action Centre ……………………………………………………………………………………………….….… LMAC Mine Action Team ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….. MAT Multi-Task Team …………………………………………………………...... MTT National Mine Action Authority…………………………………………………………………..…………………...…….…… NMAA National Mine Action Standards ……………………………………………..…………………………………..….……...... NMAS Non-Technical Survey ………………………………………………………………………………….…….………………..…….. NTS Operation Management Information System …………………………………………..………………………..……… OMIS Post-clearance impact assessment ……………………………………………………..…………………………………….. PCIA Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan ……………………………………………………..…… R-ARCSS Regional Mine Action Centre (Lebanon) ……………………………………………….……………………………….…… RMAC Sudan People's Liberation Army-in-Opposition ……………………………………………………………………...…. SPLA-IO Unexploded Ordnance ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…… UXO
Executive summary
This report covers activities undertaken during the multi-year grant awarded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) in support of activities in the field of Humanitarian Mine Action and clearance of Cluster Munitions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, Lebanon and South Sudan. Activities undertaken during the grant period include clearance of minefields and battle areas, completion of Explosive Ordnance Disposal spot tasks, delivery of Risk Education sessions to communities at risk of from mines and other ERW, training of community focal points and destruction of stockpile. In addition, MAG worked in partnership with GICHD to build institutional and individual mine action capacity within the Lebanese, Congolese and South Sudanese Mine Action Authorities. Activities incorporate a variety of methodologies, including mentorship through embedded staff, formal training sessions, technical advisory support, and workshops. In addition to land release activities, with the urban pilot project conducted in 2020 in partnership with GICHD, thanks to the Dutch Ministry funds, MAG invested in the research for technical innovation to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and safety of clearance in urban contexts, from which the whole sector can benefit. To support MAG own operational efficiency and strengthen analysis and reporting, with the support of the Ministry, MAG strengthened its internal IM resource capacity to support the development and global roll out of what is now known as “OMIS” (Operational Management Information System).
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Finally, under this grant, MAG has worked with the Gender Mine Action Programme (GMAP, now part of GICHD) in Lebanon and South Sudan to address gender mainstreaming at the level of a national authority and improve gender and diversity mainstreaming in MAG programming.
During the life of the project, some challenges related to contextual developments in all five countries have been encountered. The main one being the Kurdish independence referendum on 25th September 2017 in Iraq and subsequent changeover of control from Kurdish forces to Iraqi forces in most areas of Ninewa and Kirkuk governorates, which caused a temporary suspension of MAG activities in Federal Iraq from October 2017 to June 2018. Another important development took place in Lebanon, when in 2017 the Lebanese government approved that mine action activities began on the Blue Line. The same year the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) recaptured an area in the North east of the country occupied by Jabhat Al-Nusra and other non- state armed groups from 2014. In terms of the wider social, economic and political context, the more recent period of the project in Lebanon witnessed considerable upheaval and struggle affecting the country as a whole, more details can be found in the relevant section of the report. In South Sudan the biggest deviation from the proposal was as a result of the crisis of July 2016, during which renewed fighting spread through the Equatoria region. The upheaval in the country and rapid deterioration of the security situation required MAG to close down operations and ultimately—following UNMAS directions—execute a planned evacuation and revise workplans and targets. Finally, although efforts were made in support of DRC’s obligation under Article 5 of the Ottawa Treaty, at the time of writing the DRC requested an 18 month extension to its Article 5 deadline.
The intent of this report is to look back over all four years and considers the longer-term achievements across the programmes and how the outputs have contributed towards the overall expected outcomes and goal of the project. Despite the many challenges encountered during the four years across the all operating environments, globally MAG has successfully met all output targets proposed.
2,527 6,315,582 6,460 Community 129,436 Sqm of land EORE Focal Points EORE released sessions trained beneficiaries
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In line with the Theory of Change of the Dutch policy on security and the rule of law, the project intended to contribute to improve human security in conflict- affected countries where physical threats to safety are significantly high. The outcomes that MAG intended to achieve during this four years project aimed at reducing threats to personal safety by releasing contaminated land, destructing stockpiles and conducting risk education activities. In addition, by releasing land for productive use, socio-economic reconstruction was anticipated to be another important outcome of MAG activities in the five countries of operation. Being human security the major goal of the intervention, MAG also worked in partnership with GICHD to strengthen the capacity of national mine Action Authorities, assuming that Human Security can only be achieved within fragile states to full effect if national institutions take ownership of the problem and solution.
As outlined in each of the country reports which follows, the impact of the work carried out under this grant is key to the achievement of the programmes’ stated overall objectives. The table below shows results at outcome level against aggregated final targets as set year by year with the workplans.
Final Target 1 Results % achieved of final target
Indicator # # % 1.1 Total number of direct Women 27,835 40,383 n/a beneficiaries Girls 33,927 62,271 n/a Boys 13,638 67,206 n/a
Men 23,024 48,199 n/a Total 134,678 218,738 425% 1.2 Total number of Women 8,298 37,004 n/a Outcome1 indirect beneficiaries Girls 9,776 40,247 n/a Boys 9,659 39,827 n/a Men 9,606 41,506 n/a
1 Where the breakdown does not sum up to the total, only a total figure was provided as target.
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Total 79,027 158,584 201% # % # % 1.3 Number of (%) direct Women 1,450 88% beneficiaries surveyed Girls 1,860 90% reporting feeling safer 12,604 78% following land release and Boys 1,997 90% RE activities Men 1,501 90% Total 6,808 89% 1.4 Number of (%) direct Women 1,709 95% beneficiaries surveyed Girls 1,461 96% reporting increased 10,171 79% knowledge of ERW/mines Boys 1,884 94% following RE activities Men 1,623 94% Total 6,677 95% 1.5 Number of (%) direct Women 953 91% beneficiaries surveyed Girls 769 90% demonstrating increased 9,539 78% safe behavior towards the Boys 948 90% dangers of ERW/mines Men 933 94% following RE activities Total 3,603 95%
Through a combination of land release, stockpile destruction, risk education and community focal point training this project has directly benefited 218,738 women, men, girls and boys in the five countries funded by the Ministry from 2016 to 2020. The significant overachievements against the target is mainly attributable to the first year of operations, when few countries overachieved against their targets and where others didn’t set targets. A more detailed explanation can be found in each country section. Similarly, the total number of indirect beneficiaries reached with land release and risk education activities is double the initial target. The other joint outcome indicators all exceeded projections, with only negligible differences among age and gender groups. Results therefore confirm that Risk Education improves the beneficiaries’ knowledge of explosive remnants of war (ERW) as people are better able to recognize and identify ERW. This equips beneficiaries to report ERW correctly (a key component of safe behaviour). A better knowledge and increased rates of reporting likewise increase safety: offering a solution to explosive remnants of war uncovered during farming or construction reduces the likelihood that communities attempt to dispose of the item unsafely.
Final Target Results % achieved of final target Indicator # # % Women 5,794 11,970 207%
2.1 Number of Men 6,112 12,051 197% clearance/reduction Girls 6,220 12,419 200% direct beneficiaries Boys 5,363 15,156 283%
Outcome2 Total 23,489 51,596 220% Women 84,127 56,785 n/a
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Men 72,424 n/a 2.2 Number of Girls 78,966 n/a clearance/reduction indirect beneficiaries Boys 65,529 n/a Total 84,127 273,704 325% # % # % Women 372 68% 2.3 Number of (%) Men 373 70% direct beneficiaries 4,487 58% Girls 386 53% surveyed reporting improved livelihoods Boys 445 56% Total 1,576 61%
2.4 Number of (%) Women 281 58% direct beneficiaries Men 305 56% surveyed reporting 1,434 28% Girls 316 49% improved access to services and Boys 348 54%
infrastructure Total 1,250 54% Agriculture n/a n/a Grazing n/a n/a Community n/a n/a development 2.5 % of cleared and reduced land used Housing n/a n/a productively Infrastructure n/a n/a Natural n/a n/a resources Access n/a n/a
The land released during the project period has directly benefitted 51,596 women, girls, boys and men and has indirectly benefitted a further 273,704 people. This looks to be significantly higher than anticipated, but it must be noted that not all countries have set yearly targets against these indicators. According to the existing Theory of change, socio-economic reconstruction is facilitated through the productive use of released land. Underlying assumption is that clearance improves livelihoods by improving a community’s access to land necessary for livelihood activities—agricultural land, land from which they graze or can collect natural resources. Results achieved in terms of improvement of livelihoods is in line with the anticipated achievement, with 61% of beneficiaries reporting that the clearance activities done by MAG improved their livelihoods. The target for people benefitting from increased access to services and infrastructures remained low as MAG programmes in South Sudan and DRC adopted a conservative target as in both programmes Areas of operations were located in remote areas with scarce infrastructures and services. Results achieved appear to be positive as 54% of beneficiaries interviewed responding positively to the survey. Unfortunately, it proved difficult to aggregate land usage percentages as final figures appear to be distorted by not having set targets in all countries consistently.
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Sample sizes for outcome measurement has been through the life of the project smaller than initially predicted. This is mainly due to the transition from paper-based data collection to mobile reporting as part of MAG roll out an Operation Management Information System (OMIS).
As seen above, this four years project contributed to lasting effects for beneficiaries in DRC, Lebanon, Iraq and South Sudan in terms of a greater perception and actual safety and security. Through the four years of implementation, this project has released more than 6 million sqm of land for safe productive use and supported the permanent destruction of 10 tons of munitions. Unless there are future conflicts, cleared areas are not likely to be contaminated again. The high retention levels recorded in pre- and post-MRE sessions is also an encouraging sign that the impact of MAG’s community liaison work will be sustained beyond the project period. MAG has also increased the sustainability of the risk education messaging and reporting of UXO by training 2,527 community focal points, the double of what we initially anticipated. This activity ensures that returnees and new members of the community can be briefed on safe behaviors even after MAG has left the area. Sustainability is further enhanced at institutional level as MAG also worked to build the mine action capacity of both the FARDC and LMAC. The activities contributed to build a sustainable demining capacity within FARDC to enable the national authority to respond and manage residual contamination. In Lebanon, the intervention was aimed at supporting the national authority to adopt appropriate policies and practices to mainstream gender with a view to reinforce a sustainable national capacity.
Looking back at the results achieved and the activities conducted over the life of the project, some lesson learned can be identified. While specific lesson learned at country level can be found in relevant section, this paragraph emphasize the overall findings in terms of MEAL. The Dutch Ministry has been one of the first donors stressing the importance of impact measurement, which gradually shifted from an output driven culture to an impact driven way of working. The analysis required to report against joint outcome indicators went hand in hand with the need form MAG to strengthen its own Information management System, which proved to be a cornerstone of efficient planning, monitoring and evaluation of Mine Action. As the roll out of an operation management information system (OMIS) for clearance and CL data in all countries took time to complete, this influenced MAG ability to collect data as initially anticipated. Furthermore, it has been noted that changes to the reporting templates and the structure of the result framework as it was created at the beginning of the grant made it difficult to aggregate results from different programmes. MAG believes these lesson learned are not difficult to address going forward as key internal recommendations have been formulated and will be incorporated in the MEAL structure of the new grant.
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Multi-Country Project This section intends to report against activities conducted by MAG and in partnership with GICHD and GMAP to support MAG’s Gender and Innovation activities under this project. A description of capacity building interventions in DRC, Lebanon and South Sudan can be found in relevant sections.
Gender and Diversity MAG is committed to ensure gender equity and the needs and vulnerabilities of women are addressed in all MAG’s programmes, and that gender balance and diversity will be central to how MAG is run as an organisation. As such, gender is one of the key objective within MAG strategic direction.. In parallel with the work conducted by GICHD (former GMAP) in Lebanon and South Sudan and as a first step toward a great organizational self-awareness, MAG has developed a gender baseline assessment that each programme is required to complete. The assessment builds on the work conducted with GICHD and guide a reflection in regards to gender in both internal management and the sector in MAG countries of operation. Among the programmes funded by the Dutch Ministry, Lebanon is the first country that developed in 2019 a detailed plan for gender mainstreaming that has been implemented since January 2020. The plan aims at adopting a Gender&Diversity committee, increasing gender awareness in programme by delivering trainings to all staff, Promoting Gender Equality in community and generally becoming a gender and diversity responsive programme. As planned and reported in the 2020 workplans, GICHD (former GMAP) had scheduled two activities in Y4 to complete the gender-activity package funded with the Dutch MFA funds through MAG. The two remaining activities were a training for MAG staff mainly focused on how to mainstream gender and diversity in operations and a monitoring visit in Lebanon to assess progress and challenges of LMAC Action Plan. Unfortunately, COVID-19 disruption to travel impeded GICHD to conduct these activities. With the Dutch ministry approval, MAG has used the remaining funds to support MAG’s direct gender-related costs. To support MAG toward its strategic direction, a Gender and Inclusion Advisor has been hired in 2020 to develop and establish a global gender and inclusion strategy and framework and integrating gender and inclusion into projects, programmes and business plans. To do so, the Gender and Inclusion Advisor is working with programmes to better understand how aspects related to gender and inclusion can be integrated into existing programming and project approaches as well as provide advice on the development of appropriate gender sensitive and inclusion and diversity indicators in the proposal monitoring frameworks, logframes and theories of change. In Lebanon the gender and Diversity Advisor supported the programme on a range of activities, including advisory support for the programmer’s ongoing work on ‘Organizational gender and diversity diagnostic tool’. This tool will be a baseline for MAG Lebanon and its partners to support improving our Gender and Inclusion practices. The Advisor also engaged with the gender focal point and the Iraq programme management team to prioritize gender to define how it will be included in the country strategy 2021-23. In
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South Sudan, the Advisor worked with programme teams to undertake a gender assessment within the South Sudan programme. Through virtual workshops and learning events, provided MAG’s staff in South Sudan with the skills to apply gender consideration in their work in their own communities and to support the reintegration of refugees and host communities, different ethnic groups and between communities. Finally, the Advisor is working to facilitate learning between Iraq and Lebanon programme mainly on gender work. Work has just started to carry out a gender sensitive analysis and to support the programme in the development of gender action in the area of programmatic gender mainstreaming.
Innovation in urban clearance The recent conflicts in Iraq and Syria mainly took place in urban contexts. As areas formerly occupied by Dahesh are characterized by extensive use of devised of improvised nature and booby traps in and around houses and infrastructures, a better definition of the nature, extent and location of contamination is key for task planning and prioritization and to conduct operations safely. Research on improved and innovative survey techniques was the objective of the pilot project conducted in Iraq with GICHD. The initial intent was to use Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) complement the Technical Survey process. UAS were intended to be used to capture high-resolution aerial imagery and 3D terrain models which in turn would have been used to improve survey and clearance efficiency by clearly identifying the geo-location of explosive hazard and collecting data about inaccessible areas. During the project implementation we learned that drones’ imagery can be helpful, but it’s often limited by local restrictions and the need from proximity to the UAV. The impossibility to import drones in Iraq required an adaptive programming approach to this project. Thanks to the support pf the Dutch ministry of Foreign affairs, MAG and GICHD developed a new approach to survey which combines threat assessment, remote sensing and machine learning and provides a deeper understanding of the likely IED threat in targeted areas. An initial assessment of the explosive ordnance contamination is undertaken using an Intent-Opportunity-Capability model based on real world experience and analysis of the conflict history. At the same time, analysis of high resolution satellite imagery is performed to provide a database of information against which make planning and operational decisions. This urban approach project can be used for remote battle damage assessment and rubble signature identification using machine learning, land usage analysis. The results of the pilot confirmed that remote sensing, combined with a structured thereat assessment, will provide significant benefits to the planning and prioritization of clearance efforts and will enable prior assessment while conflicts are ongoing or security levels are not permissive to the deployment of teams in the area. As well as improving efficiency, remote sensing is also critical to the safety of personnel as it minimize exposure of teams to mine and booby trapped buildings without prior knowledge of the threat. In addition, data can be used to feed into ongoing training and management of teams involved in high risk search. During the course of 2019 a key change in terms of approach has been shifting responsibility for building MAG’s information management (IM) capacity from the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) to direct implementation by MAG. As discussed with the Ministry, MAG how has an IM manager in each region who is leading rollout of IM organisational strategy under oversight of the Technical Director and Global IM Manager. This is both more sustainable and more cost-effective than the subcontract approach.
Building and strengthening MAG Information management system As stated above, a sound Information Management (IM) is a cornerstone of efficient planning, monitoring and evaluation of Mine Action. At the time the project proposal was developed, MAG was undergoing a
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comprehensive review of its IM systems globally with a view to improve and standardize its programmers’ processes and tools. Through the introduction of efficient, effective and innovative IM practices and tools, MAG aimed to be transformed from an organisation that collects data to one that uses information for evidence-based, transparent programme management and decision-making. In the original project design, information management was to be delivered primarily through a subcontract to GICHD. The initial approach was to use the GICHD developed mobile reporting system called ‘MARS’ (Mine Action Reporting System). This system was compatible with the IMSMA-NG platform that would enable data transfer to national IMSMA databases. Over the course 2017 a number of technological advances became available that changed the strategy originally proposed. Firstly, GICHD were developing the next iteration of IMSMA, being IMSMA-CORE, built on the ESRI ArcGIS software platform, an application that had a range of complimentary mobile applications that could be easily used by field teams. In parallel, MAG was conducting research into various applications and determined that the ESRI ArcGIS platform had the most potential for a future IM system. The evolution of MAG’s organizational strategy and approach since then has led to an increased focus on MAG developing and using in-house capacity. Through the 2018, MAG strengthened its internal IM resource capacity to support the development and global roll out an “OMIS” (Operational Management Information System). By doing this, MAG established full time Information System Managers positions in each region, including one based in South Sudan and one in Iraq. Reporting to the Global IM Advisor and Technical Director, they provide assistance and leadership for MAG’s Operations Management Information System (OMIS) to enable a simple IM process at all levels, which improves survey and clearance concepts as well as analysis and reporting. With MAG increasing its own technical capability in IM systems, there was less need for GICHD to provide the technical input and a reallocation of funds from GICHD to MAG was agreed. Over the course of 2020, MAG started to introduce mobile applications to collect the majority of MAG field data, implement a common approach to GIS and utilize a single system that brings together all operational data. This leads to the usage of a single system for all operational data collected via mobile applications that brings together all operational data, removing the need for ad hoc spreadsheets. Despite travel restrictions related to COVID- 19 and associated suspension of demining operations, the roll out of the new system in Iraq has been completed and the preparatory work for the roll out in South Sudan is finalized. The results of this important investment will ultimately improve the data and information on which MAG bases its decisions and will strengthen reporting and monitoring of project activities under the new Dutch-funded grant.
CASE STUDY
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Democratic republic of Congo
Summary and evolution of the context: With the generous support received from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs MAG successfully deployed two Mine Action Teams (MATs)2 and two Community Liaison Teams (CLTs)3 to North and South Ubangi, in northern DRC. Over the two operational years the project delivered a combination of land release, stockpile destruction and Risk Education (RE) in support of DRC’s obligation under Article 5 of the Ottawa Treaty. During the project period, MAG experienced a number of disruptions to operations. This was largely caused by the unexpected request to re-accredit MAG’s teams, poor infrastructure in the area of operations and the unplanned departure of MAG’s Technical Operations Manager. MAG was grateful to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for awarding a no-cost extension until August 2018 to account for these delays.
2 Made up of 1 x Technical Field Manager, 6 x FARDC EOD operators, 1 x medic and 2 x drivers per team 3 Made up of 1 x Community Liaison Officer, 4 x seconded Red Cross Community Liaison Officers, 1 x Medic and 1 x Driver per team
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The heightened political tensions in 2017 and 2018, which included protests against the then President Kabila and subsequent plans for national elections, also complicated coordination with the authorities during the project period. As outlined in the proposal the presidential election was set to take place in 2016, but the government put off the election until 2018, citing logistical problems and the ongoing conflict in the east of the country. Elections did finally take place in December 2018 after this project had ended. Joseph Kabila stepped down as president in January 2019 after losing the election to Felix Tshisekedi. Despite the political situation hindering coordination efforts, operations themselves were not affected by the political demonstrations nor by the ongoing conflict in the east of the country, with the Ubangis comparatively stable in the context of the DRC. Despite the many challenges faced over the course of this project, this partnership has successfully enabled the release of over 500,000m2 of land, the delivery of over 1,300 MRE sessions and the destruction of over 10 tonnes of stockpiled munitions within the two provinces. MAG was able to complete survey and clearance on all but one of its assigned tasks within North and South Ubangi. MAG was unable to complete this final task owing to the significant number of spot tasks, Battle Area Clearance requests and density of the vegetation found on tasks. While MAG was unable to clear all tasks, this project has nonetheless made a significant impact towards DRC’s clearance targets. As MAG decided to end its Mine Action operations in DRC in 2018, MAG confirmed with the national authorities and NPA, who were also operating in North Ubangi at the time, that the task had been added to the list of those to be surveyed and, if necessary, cleared by NPA4. The aim of the project was to support DRC in achieving its Article 5 completion obligations by its January 2021 deadline. While this project did make a significant impact towards these clearance obligations, at the time of writing (in 2020) the DRC requested an 18 month extension to its Article 5 deadline. The reasons cited for the extension included insecurity and recurrence of armed conflict, decrease in funding, the reduction in the number of mine clearance operators and the impact of the Ebola and COVID-19 epidemics. This extension will bring the new deadline to 1 July 2022.
Progress Review & Analysis of Results: MAG encountered a number of unplanned challenges during the project period. Coordination of mine action operations in the DRC transferred fully from UNMAS to CCLAM, the National Mine Action Authority, in early 2016. This transition was an important step in increased national ownership of mine action; however, with this handover came some changes to technical and administrative regulations, and MAG was required to undergo a new process of accreditation with CCLAM. Activities were suspended for two months in 2017 at the request of CCLAM until their teams could deploy to South Ubangi to accredit MAG teams. Due to CCLAM’s lack of resources, there were also delays in the
4 At the time of writing, MAG understands that NPA operated with three teams conducting non-technical survey and manual mine clearance as well as Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) spot tasks in DRC in 2019 and NPA continued survey in early 2020, but operations ended in February 2020 and the programme officially closed at the end of March 2020. According to the recent Article 5 extension request, there remains 35,767m2 left to be surveyed and cleared in North Ubangi. There are currently no reported SHAs in South Ubangi ( http://www.mineactionreview.org/assets/downloads/907_NPA_Clearing_the_Mines_2020_DR_Congo.pdf)
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updating of national rules and an accessible database concerning Confirmed Hazardous Areas (CHAs) or Suspected Hazardous Areas (SHAs) and the facilitation of the new strategic plan. The no-cost- extension helped to mitigate the impact these delays had on project outputs. MAG’s area of operations were also extremely remote. While MAG had accounted for this during the proposal stage, the challenges faced surpassed even those originally planned for. Nevertheless, working in collaboration with the FARDC, the Congolese Red Cross and GICHD, MAG was able to deliver, and in many cases, over achieve against project targets. Over the course of the project it became clear that the scale of contamination noted in the 2014 National Landmine Contamination Survey (which MAG’s workplan was based on) had been misreported. Particularly in the more remote regions, MAG noted that land previously thought to be contaminated was being used by communities. Consequently MAG was able to cancel far more land than it originally planned and achieved 261% of the cancellation target. This misreporting however also meant that there were far fewer mines found than expected. MAG demobilised its clearance teams in July 2018 and ended its Mine Action Programme in DRC in August of the same year. MAG redeployed a small team in December 2018 to collect impact data and to perform the checks necessary for completion reports, the results of which are outlined below. As a result of the completion of operations in August and this follow-on work in December, MAG considers that our humanitarian mine action operations in the DRC have been successfully completed. At the time of completion, all known Suspected Hazardous Areas in North and South Ubangi were either cancelled, cleared, or tasked by the national authorities for clearance by another operator5. MAG believes that the land release completed as part of this project has aided the DRC in its Article 5 obligations. By building the capacity of FARDC deminers to EDO level 2, and also training Red Cross staff as Community Liaison Officers, this project has also helped to develop local capacity to be able to respond to residual risks within the two provinces.
38,150 1,323 532,210 sqm People reached EORE Of land released through EORE sessions through clearance reduction and cancellation 127 10,35 Community Focal Tonnes of points trained stockpiles destroyed
5According to the recent Article 5 extension request, there remains 35,767m2 left to be surveyed and cleared in North Ubangi. There are currently no reported SHAs in South Ubangi (http://www.mineactionreview.org/assets/downloads/907_NPA_Clearing_the_Mines_2020_DR_Congo.pdf)
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A map of the tasks in North and South Ubangi.
OUTCOME 1
TOTAL CONTRACT
Baseline Proposal Final Target Results % achieved of % achieved of target proposal target final target Indicator # # # # 1.1 Total number of Women 11,866 13,391 14,054 118% 105% direct beneficiaries Men 10,660 14,496 22,250 209% 153% Girls 8,388 16,614 12,738 152% 77% Boys 8,523 5,221 15,366 180% 294% Total 39,437 49,9056 64,408 163% 130% 1.2 Total number of Women 38,234 4,178 8,857 23% 212% indirect beneficiaries Men 34,314 5,601 12,676 37% 226% Girls 27,258 2,814 7,979 29% 284% Boys 27,694 2,837 6,765 24% 238% Total 127,500 15,430 36,277 28% 235% % # % # % # %
6 The total number of direct beneficiaries target includes 200 CFP targeted for which a SADD breakdown was not included originally.
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1.3 Number of (%) direct Women 75 - 75 882 75% 64 63% beneficiaries surveyed Men 75 - 75 1,030 75% 92 88% reporting feeling safer following land release Girls 75 - 75 295 75% 292 94% and RE activities Boys 75 - 75 736 75% 317 87% Total 75 - 75 2,943 75% 765 87% 1.4 Number of (%) direct Women 80 - 80 576 80% 215 91% beneficiaries surveyed Men 80 - 80 672 80% 244 93% reporting increased Girls 80 - 80 192 80% 264 80% knowledge of ERW/mines following RE activities Boys 80 - 80 480 80% 316 82% Total 80 - 80 1,920 80% 1,039 88% 1.5 Number of (%) direct Women 75 - 75 540 75% 180 78% beneficiaries surveyed Men 75 - 75 630 75% 203 77% demonstrating increased Girls 75 - 75 180 75% 228 72% safe behavior towards the dangers of Boys 75 - 75 450 75% 256 75% ERW/mines following RE Total 75 - 1,800 75% 867 77% activities
Total number of direct and Indirect beneficiaries Through a combination of land release, stockpile destruction, risk education and community focal point training this project has directly benefited 64,408 women, men, girls and boys from North and South Ubangi provinces over a two-year period. Over 36,000 people also indirectly benefitted from the land being released and returned to the community. As MAG adopted the standardized beneficiary definitions during the course of the first year of the project, indirect RE beneficiaries were not reported on, which explains the underachievement of the total indirect beneficiaries target. Despite MAG increasing project targets during the project period MAG continued to overachieve against both the land release and risk education beneficiary targets. The reasons for which are outlined further in the sections below.
Number of (%) direct beneficiaries surveyed reporting feeling safer following land release and RE activities In December 2018 MAG’s CL team remobilized to measure the impact of land release on the two communities of Comuele and Ewanzombo. Due to logistical and time restraints MAG was only able to survey 77 people relating to land release activities (22 women, 7 girls, 6 boys and 42 men). A further 785 people completed pre- and post-risk education surveys (154 women, 220 men, 183 girls and 228 boys). As with Indicator 5 (related to improved livelihoods) and Indicator 6 (related to improved infrastructure), the data for this indicator only includes outputs in year 2 of the project as the data was not collected and reported in the first year of operations.
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Eighty three percent of those surveyed following land release and risk education activities reported feeling safer. However, only 63% of women reported feeling safer, compared to a significantly higher proportion of girls, boys and men. This perhaps reflects the traditional roles played by women in Congolese society, where foraging and collecting firewood increases the likelihood that they will come into contact with items of ERW. Combined with the greater awareness of the risks following risk education, women may have felt less safe albeit more aware of what to do if they do find an explosive remnant of war.
Number of (%) direct beneficiaries surveyed reporting increased knowledge of ERW/mines following RE activities To assess the number of beneficiaries with increased knowledge following RE MAG distributed pre- and post-RE questionnaires to men, women, boys and girls attending the sessions. In total 1,028 beneficiaries were surveyed in year 1 (244 women, 207 girls, 233 boys and 344 men) and 785 people completed surveys in year 2 (154 women, 220 men, 183 girls and 228 boys). Owing to the sheer demand for RE, the 10% sample survey as stated in the methodology was not possible to maintain. While the figures surveyed do not represent a 10% survey of the beneficiaries, they remain indicative of overall effectiveness of the intervention. Questionnaires contained questions related to the six topics addressed by the CL Officers during their presentations, including: the ability to recognize mines and ERW; the impact of mines and ERW on people and communities; the sources of information and clues to recognize the dangerous areas; recognizing the signs and markings of the danger; what to do in case of discovery of mines or ERW; and how to prevent accidents by mines or ERW for others. Survey findings from pre/post RE survey indicated that 87% of respondents demonstrated appropriate knowledge following RE activities. While smaller proportions of girls and boys from the survey sample demonstrated appropriate knowledge overall, the improvements of boys and girls between the pre- and post-questionnaire were the greatest changes. In this regard, MAG has demonstrated the greatest impact of its intervention among the cohorts most at risk. While increases in knowledge were observed, MAG also found that overall knowledge of ERW was also high. This was because a large proportion of each community had personal experience finding hazardous devices, limiting their access to land as they knew them to be dangerous or had lost a family member to an accident. Recipients were able to report an increase in understanding of the risks and were engaged in each session, seeing the information shared as important.
Number of (%) direct beneficiaries surveyed demonstrating increased safe behavior towards the dangers of ERW/mines following RE activities. Survey findings from pre/post RE survey indicated that 76% of respondents demonstrated appropriate behaviour following RE activities. As a result of the sessions, a significant proportion of the participants are now fully aware of what to do if they encounter an unknown object, how to report the object to a local authority (such as a village chief), how to mark the area as dangerous for other members of the community and how to avoid places where suspicious devices might be discovered.
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OUTCOME 2 % achieved % achieved Proposal Baseline Final Target Results of proposal of final target target target Indicator # # # # Women 1,870 4,049 4,269 228% 105%
2.1 Number of Men 1,679 3,745 7,379 439% 197% clearance/reduction Girls 1,333 3,735 2,743 206% 73% direct beneficiaries Boys 1,355 3,781 2,740 202% 72% Total 6,237 15,310 17,131 275% 112% Women 2,249 1,928 8,857 394% 459% 2.2 Number of Men 2,109 1,731 12,676 601% 732% clearance/reduction Girls 1,603 1,374 7,979 498% 581% indirect beneficiaries Boys 1,629 1,397 6,765 415% 484% Total 7,590 6,430 36,277 478% 564% % # # # Women 40 - 362 13 2.3 Number of (%) Men 40 - 423 12 direct beneficiaries surveyed reporting Girls 40 - 121 29 improved Boys 40 - 302 37 livelihoods Total 40 - 1,208 91
2.4 Number of (%) Women 15 - 136 0 direct beneficiaries Men 15 - 159 0 surveyed reporting Girls 15 - 45 0 improved access to services and Boys 15 - 114 0 infrastructure Total 15 - 454 0 Agriculture 90% 90% 90% 100% Grazing 0 0 0 0 Community 0 0 0 0 development 2.5 % of cleared and reduced land used Housing 0 0 0 0 productively Infrastructure 10% 10% 10% 0% Natural 0 0 0 0 resources Access 0 0 0 0
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Number of clearance/reduction direct and indirect beneficiaries The land released during the project period has directly benefitted 17,131 women, girls, boys and men and has indirectly benefitted a further 36,277 people. This is significantly higher than anticipated. Due to the misreporting of SHAs MAG was able to release more land than had originally been planned which has contributed to this increase. As there was also less time-intensive minefield clearance than anticipated the teams were able to support with a variety of smaller ad-hoc Battle Area Clearance tasks to remove items of UXO. These smaller and ad-hoc tasks also led to an increase in beneficiary figures. Number of (%) direct beneficiaries surveyed reporting improved livelihoods In accordance with MAG’s SOPs, MAG leaves a minimum of six months after land has been cleared before returning to measure the impact of this clearance. As noted above, 77 people were surveyed as part of MAG’s impact surveys carried out in the communities of Comuele and Ewanzombo. The survey represented about 6% of the direct beneficiaries of clearance in the area that had started in year one of the project. Time and logistical constraints did not allow a larger survey sample. All those surveyed reported that the cleared land is mostly used for agriculture. A further 83% reported that clearance activities had improved access to natural resources. As a result, while some community members have benefitted from expanding their agricultural land, a greater proportion have been able to improve their diet, which traditionally consists of a staple food such as cereals (maize, rice), tubers (manioc, yams), fruits (plantain bananas) or legumes (beans, cowpeas). However, given that the communities had not put all the land to use at the time of the survey, the land use was shared and there are few options to bring produce to a large market, the improvement in livelihoods is therefore lower than expected at 34%. Number of (%) direct beneficiaries surveyed reporting improved access to services and infrastructure None of those surveyed reported improved access to services or infrastructure as a result of clearance activities. This represents the lack of infrastructure in MAG’s remote areas of operations in North and South Ubangi. Tasks were often around villages with little to no access to electricity, running water or services. While there were some paths to neighbouring villages or to woodland for foraging, the cleared tasks were also exclusively on land that was either used for agriculture or had agricultural potential. Percentage of cleared and reduced land used productively All of the released land studied during the impact assessment (294,518m2) was in agricultural use or planned for agricultural use. In the Year 1 report, MAG had also reported that it anticipated 26,880m2 of land was to be used for infrastructure purposes. However this was updated to ‘agriculture’ in Year 2 following the impact survey. The release of agricultural land for the local communities is particularly important to guarding against food insecurity and improving income from the sale of surplus produce. In North and South Ubangi, an estimated three quarters of income comes from agricultural produce, especially cash crops such as palm nuts, cocoa and rubber, with further land to be used for these activities particularly important. In Comuele, which was a new hazardous area reported to MAG’s team, the local community used 20,000m2 for a plantation rather than the subsistence agriculture seen in other locations. This has, however, still been classed as ‘agriculture’ in the table above.
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OUTPUTS
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target
Indicator # # # Women 7,197 7,079 7,456 104% 105% 1. Total Men 6,459 6,877 10,953 170% 159% number of Girls 191% 173% RE direct 10,344 11,439 19,741 beneficiaries Boys Total 24,000 25,396 38,150 159% 150% Women 35,985 2. Total Men 32,295 number of Girls 25,655 RE indirect beneficiaries Boys 26,065 Total 120,000 3. Total number of RE 1,200 1,200 1,323 110% 110% sessions delivered 4. Tonnes of stockpiles 28 28 10.35 37% 37% destroyed
Women 2,699 2,250 2,250 83% 100% 5. Number of direct Men 2,422 3,870 3,870 160% 100% beneficiaries Girls 1,924 1,440 1,440 75% 100% of stockpile Boys 1,955 1,440 1,440 74% 100% destruction Total 9,000 9,000 9,000 100% 100%
Total number of RE sessions delivered and direct beneficiaries of RE The CL capacity encountered a number of difficulties during operations. This included the significant distances between different target communities as well as poor road conditions. The Government of the DRC also unexpectedly requested the reaccreditation of teams at the start of the project, which caused further delays. Despite these challenges the two CL teams achieved 110% of the project target through the delivery of 1,323 RE sessions in over 200 locations within the two provinces. The number of recipients reached through the RE sessions surpassed expectations. In total, MAG teams delivered RE to 38,150 recipients. Almost double the number of children attended sessions than originally planned. This is in part due to the CL teams’ decision to provide more of a focus on schools, owing to the particular vulnerability of boys and girls to mines and ERW. The divide between male and female recipients is indicative of the social structures in the DRC where it remains difficult to access as many female members of communities as male. Despite accounting for this in the baseline assessment,
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where MAG expected women to constitute 30% of participants, and despite MAG’s efforts to engage women and also deploying gender-balanced CL teams, women only made up 20% of attendees. According to the SBDs version 1, released in late 2016, reporting of indirect EORE beneficiaries was discouraged, therefore MAG didn’t reach or report against associated targets presented at the proposal stage. The delivery of RE messaging during this project together with the training of CFPs aimed to support communities to react and report appropriately if residual ERW contamination were found in the future.
Tonnes of stockpiles destroyed and number of direct beneficiaries of stockpile destruction The FARDC liaison/point of contact in Kinshasa had informed MAG at the start of the project that thirty tons of munitions required destruction in Gemena in South Ubangi. However, slow coordination between the FARDC in Kinshasa and Gemena meant destruction activities would not be possible within the grant period. Instead the FARDC requested that MAG destroy obsolete munitions in the town of Mbandaka at Camp Bokala. While the task was completed, only 37% of the munitions (10.35 tonnes) expected in Gemena were secured and demolished in Mbandaka. However, given that Mbandaka has experienced three separate unplanned explosions at munitions sites in the past decade, the impact of the intervention was still significant and directly benefited 9,000 people within the vicinity of the stockpile.
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target Outcome 2: Enhanced resilience of vulnerable groups through Improved access to resources, livelihoods and socioeconomic reconstruction
Clearance 320,000 320,000 310,378 97% 97% 1.Total high priority Reduction 16,000 16,000 13,000 81% 81% land released Cancellation 80,000 80,000 208,832 261% 261% TOTAL 416,000 416,000 532,210 128% 128%
Items found and destroyed - - 140 - -
Total high priority land released Originally MAG had relied on data from the 2014 National Landmine Contamination Survey and expected eight Suspected Hazardous Areas (SHAs) in North Ubangi measuring 198,977m² and seven SHAs in South Ubangi covering 190,795m2 of land. The original targets to release 416,000m² of high priority land released, including 320,000m2 through clearance, 16,000m2 through technical survey and 80,000m2 through non-technical survey accounted for the potential of further contamination. However, as operations progressed it became clear the scale of the contamination in the remoter regions of the Ubangi provinces had been poorly defined. The teams were quickly able to confirm that some of the tasks were not contaminated at all, as the areas had been sufficiently farmed or used for construction. Consequently, following global land-
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release best practice MAG was able to cancel significantly more land than was expected during the two years of operations. In total MAG was able to cancel 208,832m2 of land through non-technical survey during the project period, which is equivalent to 261% of the original 80,000m2 cancellation target. While this led to a reduced technical survey and clearance requirement, MAG was still able to meet 97% of the overall clearance target by clearing 310,378m2 of land, and reduced a further 13,000m2 through technical survey (81% of the project target). As a result of this misreporting, the presence of mines were far lower than expected. During the course of the grant only two anti-tank mines were removed from MAG’s areas of operations, the remaining items were all UXO. Despite this change in context, the completion of tasks through clearance and cancellation has nevertheless made a significant contribution to the final stages of humanitarian mine action in the DRC.
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target Outcome 3: Local capacity to support mine action activities strengthened, ensuring lasting impact 1.Number of National Mine Action Strategy on Ottawa compliance/residual 1 1 1 100% 100% risk management produced 2.Number of National implementing partners trained and mentored 3.Number of local staff trained and deployed 4.Community Women 100 100 79 79% 79% Focal Men 100 100 48 48% 48% Points/teachers trained Total 200 200 127 64% 64%
Number of National Mine Action Strategy inputs on Ottawa compliance/residual risk management delivered The Geneva Centre (GICHD) has provided a wide range of support to the DRC's Centre Congolais de Lutte Antimines (CCLAM) for several years. A key component of this support was the development of the 2018 -2019 national mine action strategy for DRC which was produced as planned under this project. The strategy focused on achieving completion of APBMC Article 5 obligations within the country’s deadline at the time which was set to 1st January 2021. A national strategy stakeholder workshop was conducted in the DRC from 22 to 25 August 2017. The workshop brought together major national and international stakeholders to facilitate the development of the strategy. The strategy was subsequently drafted based on the inputs of the workshop. A second workshop was held to review the draft before the finalised strategy was submitted by the CCLAM (in collaboration with UNMAS) to relevant government authorities.
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In November 2018, GICHD organized a two-day workshop in Kinshasa to evaluate the status of the strategy implementation and to develop a concrete action plan to reach the three objectives as stated in the strategy. Roughly 35 people from various organisations (including CCLAM, UNMAS, NPA, DCA, FARDC, PNC as well as representatives from ministries and national NGOs) participated in the workshop. The final workshop of the project was organised by GICHD and CCLAM in February 2020. The main purpose was to discuss DRC's path to completion, to clarify the remaining contamination problem and to agree on the next steps given the remaining problem and available capacity and resources. The workshop brought together representatives from CCLAM, UNMAS and national and international operators (AFRILAM, NPA, DCA and MAG). At the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties in November 2020, the DRC requested an extension of 18 months to complete clearance of anti-personnel mines in mined areas by 1 July 2022.
Number of National implementing partners trained and mentored To help build national technical capacity to deal with the residual threat MAG trained and seconded 12 deminers from FARDC to form its MATs. Six of the twelve deminers went on to secure EOD Level 2 qualifications thanks to training provided in collaboration with CCLAM during this project. As part of this project MAG also trained and seconded eight personnel from the Congolese Red Cross as CL officers. The personnel were trained in a range of CL activities including RE, survey and data collection. The combination of formal training together with the on-the-job mentoring provided by MAG has provided the FARDC and Red Cross trainees with the skills to respond to the needs of the communities in North and South Ubangi as residual items of unexploded ordnance are reported.
Community Focal Points/teachers trained MAG trained Community Focal Points (CFPs) in each community that it visited in order to sustain the impact of the intervention. These figures of authority are trained to provide RE in the community, in particular to new arrivals and children. They are also instructed on how to respond to reports of ERW and communicate them to the relevant authorities in order to have the hazards cleared. MAG trained 127 CFPs in total, 110 in year 1 and 17 in year 2. The number of CFPs trained was lower than expected as the areas the teams worked were sparsely populated and did not require multiple focal points. Although this was only 64% of the original target, the CFPs ability to continue the provision of risk education messages to their communities and help reporting represents a sustainable impact on the communities in North and South Ubangi.
Reflection on cross-cutting issues
Gender Two of the twelve FARDC deminers seconded to the MATs during the project were women. Although not a gender-balanced clearance team, the ability to second and train two women from the largely male
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FARDC is an achievement in itself. The CL teams on the other hand were gender balanced to ensure equal access to women, girls, boys and men. However, as previously reported, despite these efforts, the cultural context in the DRC makes it difficult to encourage the participation of women and girls in the RE sessions and the number of women participating was even less than anticipated. While MAG no longer delivers RE in DRC, there are lessons to be learnt from the findings of this project and the need to further strengthen its RE approach to make it more accessible to women in such challenging contexts.
Conflict Sensitivity The two provinces of North and South Ubangi remain among the poorest provinces of the DRC, with low levels of agricultural development caused largely by a lack of infrastructure and limited investment in natural resources. However, the location of MAG’s area of operations on the border with the Central African Republic as well as in areas that have influxes of IDPs/refugees or population displacement means that some communities are still sensitive and complicates engagement with CL teams. Refugees and rebel groups are known to cross the border with the Central African Republic, which also makes communities concerned about stigma or retribution if seen to be working with organisations associated with the Congolese state. The combination with extreme poverty can cause friction during humanitarian interventions, especially if organisations are not able to respond to requests even if these are outside of the organisational remit. MAG, for instance, received several requests from communities to clear areas that were not contaminated knowing that MAG’s teams would have to cut the brush, which could then easily be used for farming. These instances did not, however, significantly impact operations as given MAG’s experience and approach adapted to the context that included regular meetings with local communities and local authorities in order to mitigate any mistrust of our operations.
Innovation To help identify any further hazardous areas, including those not registered on the 2014 National Landmine Contamination Survey, radio broadcasts were scheduled in both North and South Ubangi during the project period. The hosts of the radio show organized interactive broadcasts three times a week which included a range of risk education messaging. Listeners were also encouraged to call in during or after the broadcast using the free-phone numbers to report new hazardous areas or items that they had found. The broadcasts were aired three times a day from May to June 2018 in South Ubangi and in July in North Ubangi. Significant additional reports of UXO were reported during that time and responded to by the team.
Sustainability This project has supported the permanent destruction of 10 tons of munitions, a further 310,378 m2 of land has been cleared of 140 mines and UXO. Unless there are future conflicts, cleared areas are not likely to be contaminated again. The Ubangis are comparatively stable compared to the rest of the DRC and there were no reports of protracted fighting during the course of the grant in MAG’s area of operations.
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The high retention levels recorded in pre- and post-MRE sessions is also an encouraging sign that the impact of MAG’s community liaison work will be sustained beyond the project period. MAG has also increased the sustainability of the risk education messaging and reporting of UXO by training 127 community focal points. Although lower than the original target – owing to the low density population in the areas MAG was operating – the focal points have the capacity to sustain risk education messaging for people who were unable to attend the sessions, new arrivals in the area and also children. As a part of the project, MAG also worked to build the mine action capacity of both the FARDC and Red Cross. In November 2017, in collaboration with CCLAM, MAG supported a training course that allowed six of the twelve deminers deployed under the grant to secure EOD 2 qualifications. In conjunction with the Red Cross community liaison staff trained during the grant, the FARDC deminers can now competently respond to the needs of the communities in North and South Ubangi as residual items of unexploded ordnance are reported.
Collaboration/coordination MAG held regular meetings with the provincial Governor, Army and Police points of contact, immigration officials, the provincial office of the Red Cross and the administration during the project to outline project objectives, limitations and to provide general updates. Despite the challenges mentioned previously, overall the collaboration with local authorities and partners was positive.
Collaboration with NL Embassy MAG continued to keep the donor informed of developments throughout the project period.
Risk analysis review MAG did not face any security challenges while operating in North and South Ubangi. Violence in the DRC was concentrated in the east of the country during the project period, as well as in the southern Kasaï region and Tanganyika. Although the presence of Ebola on the eastern border of North Ubangi in April 2017 did partly inform MAG’s decision to relocate the Dutch-funded teams to South Ubangi no operations were affected by the two outbreaks during the course of the project. Coordination did become more complicated as a result of the political context during the second year of operations, which particularly impacted coordination with the FARDC. However, during the second year of operations, the impact was limited to the ability to access obsolete munitions for destruction.
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Iraq
Summary and evolution of the context:
Iraq is one of the most explosive ordnance contaminated countries in the world following more than 40 years of conflict, unrest, and regional instability. Despite a number of substantial challenges to operations experienced over the course of the four-year project and additional emergency funding, Dutch MFA support of MAG in the dynamic context of Iraq achieved significant results in land release and EORE supporting conflict-affected populations.
Over the past four years more survey and clearance operations have defined and cleared contamination in Kurdistan guided by IKMAA’s records and MAG non-technical survey reports. Despite good progress, the 2020 Mine Action Review has reported 213,589,117m2 of land in Kurdistan to be mined.7 This is
7 http://www.mineactionreview.org/assets/downloads/907_NPA_Clearing_the_Mines_2020_WEB.pdf
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more than 5 million square metres less than reported in the 2016 Mine Action Review, with 218,617,532m2 of land reportedly mined at the end of 2015.8
In Ninewa over the past few years, it has become clear that ISIS contaminated large swathes of land to defend areas that they once occupied and sabotaged infrastructure to prevent the safe and swift rehabilitation of key services and return of IDPs. MAG’s teams have found that the longer that ISIS held an area the more sophisticated explosive devices have been left through defensive lines of improvised mines and booby traps in buildings. Over the four years, MAG has been able to move into areas that ISIS held for longer periods of time, where explosive ordnance contamination is dense.
Unfortunately, reporting of explosive ordnance accidents and victims is not consistent or centralised in Iraq. In areas that MAG works, community members report accidents to staff, however figures are expected to be higher than data shows. In 2016, 69 accidents involving 81 individuals were reported to MAG staff across operational areas in Ninewa and Kurdistan. In 2020, seven accidents involving seven individuals were reported to MAG. This significant reduction could be for various reasons including less movement of individuals since the emergence of Covid, reduced ability for MAG teams to visit communities as well as the result of clearance and risk education activities.
Prior to the Kurdish independence referendum on 25th September 2017, MAG made good progress against project targets in conducting clearance and risk education activities in areas previously held by ISIS. Following the referendum and subsequent changeover of control from Kurdish forces to Iraqi forces in most areas of Ninewa and Kirkuk governorates in October, both Government of Iraq (GoI) and Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) mine action authorities immediately ordered all humanitarian mine action (HMA) actors in these areas to stand down their operations temporarily. Once HMA activities were able to resume, operations from MAG’s under the Kurdistan contract were largely unaffected by the change in access and operating context, except for a few tasks in Kirkuk Governorate which changed from Kurdish to Iraqi forces control became inaccessible by MAG teams.
However, under the Emergency project, MAG lost access to operational areas in Ninewa Governorate due to the shift in control of the “disputed areas” from KRI to Federal Iraq from October 2017. As detailed in MAG’s workplan for 2018 and following discussion and approval from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MAG relocated the Dutch Government funded capacity under this project to operate in the KRI, where MAG’s operations continued unaffected through until June 2018, before redeploying to Ninewa from July until the end of the year.
After the referendum and the overnight change in control of the disputed areas, MAG registration and accreditation with the GoI became urgent as an important requirement to resume in Federal Iraq. MAG led a mine action subcluster briefing meeting with other HMA organisations and donors to discuss the challenges and advocacy needed to help resolve issues surrounding NGO registration, accreditation from the GoI’s Directorate of Mine Action (DMA), access to work sites in Ninewa, Kirkuk and Diyala and visas for essential expert international staff. By July 2018, MAG secured all necessary registrations, accreditations, permissions and visas to enable operations in areas under the control of Iraqi forces.
8 http://www.mineactionreview.org/assets/downloads/Iraq.pdf
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Other challenges in the project period included a particularly long rainy season in 2019, stretching from January into April 2019. Unusually rainy weather resulted in several lost working days and significant vegetation growth in the spring. This required deminers to cut the vegetation to safely continue, which slowed the rate of clearance in the spring.
At the start of the project, there were nearly 320,000 IDPs in Dohuk governorate, this number gradually decreased to around 274,000 at the end of the project.9 These IDPs are frequently moving through and settling in areas affected by contamination. The delivery of high quality EORE in affected communities and among IDPs has improved knowledge of landmines and explosive ordnance, which has resulted in greater feelings of safety and potentially to enhanced personal safety.
In 2020, the teams worked as planned in January and February, but operations were suspended in early March due to Covid-19 mitigation measures and government announced curfews. The first cases of Covid-19 in Iraq were reported in February 2020. The country’s weak health system compounded by dense populations and poor access to sanitation materials among refugees and IDPs raised concerns about the potential impact of the pandemic on Iraq. From early March the governments of Iraq and the KRI implemented movement restrictions, lockdowns, curfews, and closure of airports and border crossings. This meant that the MFA funded team was unable to deploy for the remainder of the month of March and for the additional one month of 2020 that the grant was able to support the team in 2020. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, MAG temporarily repatriated non-essential international staff. Following an easement of travel and movement restrictions international staff started returning to Iraq from July onwards.
During the life of the Kurdistan project, MAG was able to deploy 4 clearance teams for a total of 100 team months against the originally planned 108 team months. MAG also deployed CL capacity for a total of 45 months of the originally planned 96 months to conduct pre/post IA and deliver EORE sessions. However, 24 national partner NGO CL teams were also deployed to deliver EORE sessions in Kirkuk and Diyala governorates. With the MFA emergency funding between November 2016 and December 2018, MAG was able to deploy multi-task clearance teams for a total of 130 months and CL teams for a total of 48 team months to deliver EORE sessions.
Despite Covid-19’s interruption to the project, in year 4 the teams were still able to reach 90% of the land release target, releasing 55,050m2 of land and delivering 70% of planned EORE, 83 sessions, to 81% of the anticipated EORE beneficiaries, 1,190.
Under the Kurdistan four-year grant, MAG exceeded its target for land released during the project, releasing 1,155,896 m2 (117% of final project target) through minefield and battle area clearance. The teams have destroyed 3,047 items including anti-personnel mines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and small arms ammunition (SAA). Clearance activities have directly benefitted 2,758 people, and indirectly benefitted a further 39,479. MAG CL teams have also delivered 3,471 risk education sessions, reaching more than 59,000 women, girls, boys and men.
9 IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix: http://iraqdtm.iom.int/
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Despite the significant challenges posed by not being able to access operational areas of Ninewa between October 2017 and July 2018, the emergency funding project was able to release 1,110,640 m² across Ninewa Governorate in areas formerly held by ISIS. The teams removed 3,226 items, including improvised mines, conventional anti-personnel mines, UXO and SAA. Clearance activities have directly benefitted 26,857 people. MAG also delivered 957 risk education sessions to over 12,000 people and trained 159 Community Focal Points in delivery of risk education and reporting of contamination.
Progress Review & Analysis of Results:
Legacy Project Throughout the four-year project, clearance and community liaison activities have had a positive impact on women, girls, boys and men in targeted communities. Removal of landmines and other items of explosive ordnance, supplemented by greater knowledge of the threat, has reduced the threat to safety. Additionally, land release has enabled communities to expand their livelihoods, facilitating socio- economic reconstruction. RE and CFP trainings improved communities’ ability to identify and report explosive ordnance, building their capacity to greater security. Approximately equal women and men benefited from clearance and RE activities.
59,033 3,471 1,555,896 People reached EORE sqm through EORE sessions Of land released
through clearance and reduction 1,662 3,047 Community Focal Items found points trained and destroyed
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OUTCOME 1
Baseline Proposal Final Target Results % achieved % achieved target of proposal of final target target Indicator # # # # 1.1 Total number of direct Women 10,762 n/a 7,789 72% n/a beneficiaries Men 11,222 n/a 8,447 75% n/a Girls 15,624 n/a 22,374 143% n/a Boys 15,624 n/a 24,843 159% n/a Total 53,232 19,720 63,453 119% 322% 1.2 Total number of Women 64,896 n/a 10,402 16% n/a indirect beneficiaries Men 64,896 n/a 10,587 16% n/a Girls 97,344 n/a 10,378 11% n/a Boys 97,344 n/a 9,983 10% n/a Total 324,480 n/a 41,350 13% n/a % # % # % # % 1.3 Number of (%) direct Women - - n/a 80% 5 100% beneficiaries surveyed Men reporting feeling safer - - n/a 80% 23 100% following land release and Girls - - n/a 80% 6 100% RE activities Boys - - n/a 80% 11 100% Total - - 4,652 80% 45 100% 1.4 Number of (%) direct Women - - n/a 80% 394 91% beneficiaries surveyed Men - - n/a 80% 320 87% reporting increased Girls - - n/a 80% 81 91% knowledge of ERW/mines Boys - - n/a 80% 343 93% following RE activities Total - - 5,232 80% 1,138 91% 1.5 Number of (%) direct Women - - n/a 80% 3 60% beneficiaries surveyed Men - - n/a 80% 16 70% demonstrating increased Girls - - n/a 80% 4 67% safe behaviour towards Boys - - n/a 80% 8 73% the dangers of Total ERW/mines following RE - - 80% 31 69% activities
Throughout the four-year project period MAG has reached 63,453 direct beneficiaries (7,789 women, 8,447 men, 22,374 girls and 24,843 boys) through clearance, risk education, and training of CFPs and teachers in the KRI. The original project target for direct beneficiaries was 53,453, as such MAG reached 119% of the proposal target. Looking more specifically at the age and gender disaggregated targets; there was an overachievement on the targets for children and an underachievement on the targets for adults. This difference is due to CL teams reaching more children through RE sessions than adults (see below for a more detailed explanation). It is difficult to assess the results for beneficiaries compared to the final targets as in project year two no targets were set. In year three and four, there were targets for beneficiaries but they were not broken down by age and gender.
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MAG adopted the first version of the standardized beneficiary definitions during the course of the project. This had a significant impact the indirect beneficiary targets as indirect EORE beneficiaries have not been counted, in line with the SBDs 1.0.
In general, the outputs of the project activities led to the expected outcomes with 100% of surveyed direct beneficiaries reporting feeling safer following land release and RE activities and 91% of beneficiaries surveyed reporting increased knowledge of ERW/mines following RE activities. For both of these outcome indicators the results were higher than the targets, which was set at 80% for both indicators. Of the surveyed beneficiaries, 69% demonstrated increased safe behaviour towards the dangers towards ERW and mines. Due to the transition from paper-based data collection to mobile reporting as part of MAG roll out an Operation Management Information System (OMIS) in Iraq, the number of surveyed beneficiaries was lower than originally planned, especially for the indicators about reported feelings of safety and safe behaviours.
Following some challenges with gathering and reporting on outcome data, MAG started developing new mobile data collection and online real-time database and management tools. At the same time, MAG’s CL department started developing new impact assessment tools to collect more accurate outcome data about completed clearance tasks. These new data collection and outcome monitoring tools were mostly completed and ready to be fully rolled out across the organization at the beginning of 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 stand down from March onwards, unfortunately the teams were unable to start using them under this project and as a result for some of the outcome indicators there is only limited or no data available. Since the resumption of operations from September 2020 onwards MAG has started using the new data collection and monitoring tools meaning that in the new Dutch project MAG will have reliable data to report under the project outcome indicators.
OUTCOME 2
% achieved % achieved Proposal Final Baseline Results of proposal of final target Target target target Indicator # # # # Women 1,200 n/a 761 63% n/a 2.1 Number of Men 1,200 n/a 807 67% n/a clearance/reduction Girls 1,800 n/a 562 31% n/a direct beneficiaries Boys 1,800 n/a 628 35% n/a Total 6,000 1,174 2,758 46% 235% Women 9,600 n/a 10’402 108% n/a 2.2 Number of clearance/reduction Men 9,600 n/a 10,587 1010% n/a indirect Girls 14,400 n/a 10,378 72% n/a beneficiaries Boys 14,400 n/a 9,983 69% n/a Total 48,000 14,100 41,350 86% 293%
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% # # # 2.3 Number of (%) Women - n/a 0 direct beneficiaries Men - n/a 0 surveyed reporting Girls - 0 0 improved Boys - 0 0 livelihoods Total 1,762 0 2.4 Number of (%) Women n/a n/a 0 direct beneficiaries Men n/a n/a 0 surveyed reporting Girls n/a n/a 0 improved access to Boys n/a n/a 0 services and infrastructure Total n/a n/a 0 Agriculture 64% 97% 50% Grazing 12% 0 3% Community 5% 0.7% 0% 2.5 % of cleared development and reduced land Housing 12% 0.7% 0% used productively Infrastructure 3% 1% 0% Natural 4% 0% 15% resources Access 0 0% 1%
Through clearance and reduction of conventional minefields and former battle areas in the KRI, MAG’s clearance teams were able to reach 2,758 direct beneficiaries (761 women, 807 men, 562 girls and 628 boys) and 39,479 indirect beneficiaries (9,974 women, 10,223 men, 9,789 girls and 9,493 boys). These results reflect 46% of the proposal target for direct beneficiaries and 82% of the target for indirect beneficiaries. In the first two project years no targets were set for clearance beneficiaries, making it difficult to compare the overall project results with final targets. In the last two project years the annual targets for beneficiaries were set relatively low as compared to the overall targets in the proposal because the tasks where Dutch teams could be deployed were primarily situated in mountainous areas in the KRI with limited numbers of direct beneficiaries.
In the first project year the teams did not yet gather data on the use of released land as the data collection and reporting systems where not yet fully capturing this information, the percentages in the results column for the overall project are therefore based on the results from years two to four. The percentages per land use category are slightly different than anticipated at the proposal stage, MAG relies on task orders from IKMAA and as such it is difficult to predict exactly how much land will be released and put back in productive use in each separate category.
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OUTPUTS
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of final Results target Target proposal target target
Outcome 1: Security and stability is enhanced, risk of death and injury to individuals and communities reduced Indicator # # # Women 9,216 n/a 6,521 71% n/a 1. Total Men 9,216 n/a 6,485 70% n/a number of Girls 158% n/a RE direct 13,824 n/a 21,812 beneficiaries Boys 175% n/a Total 46,080 18,158 59,033 128% 325% Women 55,296 n/a - n/a n/a 1. Total Men 55,296 n/a - n/a n/a number of Girls 82,944 n/a - n/a n/a RE indirect Boys 82,944 n/a - n/a n/a beneficiaries Total 276,480 n/a - n/a n/a 3. Total number of RE 3,408 2,958 3,471 102% 117% sessions delivered
The targets for both the number of RE sessions and the number of RE beneficiaries were reached. With 3,471 or RE sessions the CL teams reached 102% of the original project target and 117% of the revised target. And with 59,033 RE beneficiaries they reached 128% of the original target and 325% of the revised target, the second percentage is so high because in project year two no targets were set for the number of RE beneficiaries. Throughout the project the CL teams consistently underachieved on their targets for adults and overachieved on their targets for children. This is a trend in RE results that has been identified across the programme. The CL teams were able to reach a lot of children due to their good coordination and relationships with schools allowing them to conduct many RE sessions with students in their classes. Adults are typically a harder audience to reach and MAG has been looking at alternative approaches to reach them better. One of these new approaches is using Facebook and SMS campaigning to reach adults, which proved to be highly effective in recent pilot projects and the CL department is currently building on these experiences.
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Map: Community liaison activities implemented under the four-year project
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target
Outcome 2: Enhanced resilience of vulnerable groups through Improved access to resources, livelihoods and socioeconomic reconstruction Clearance 1,608,000 1,109,496 69% n/a Reduction 0 46,400 n/a n/a 1.Total high priority Cancellati land released 0 0 0 n/a n/a on TOTAL 1,608,000 987,910 1,155,896 72% 117% Items found and destroyed n/a n/a 3,047 n/a n/a 2. % prioritized EOD Spot n/a 100% 100% 100% 100% Tasks removed/destroyed 3. % newly identified hazardous area reports n/a 100% 100% 100% 100% submitted to national mine action authority
With 1,155,896m2 of land released throughout the project, the teams reached 72% of the proposal target and 117% of the final target. The underperformance against the proposal target is because the total number of deployed clearance team months (100) was lower than initially proposed (108). In addition, some of the conventional minefields where the teams were deployed were located in steep
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and mountainous terrain, so it was difficult for the deminers to work and progress was relatively slow. Other challenges included a particularly long rainy season in 2019, stretching from January into April 2019. Unusually rainy weather resulted in several lost working days and significant vegetation growth in the spring which slowed the clearance process. In 2020, operations were suspended in early March due to Covid-19 mitigation measures and government announced curfews. Of the released land 1,109,496m2 was cleared and 46,400m2 was reduced through technical survey. During the clearance activities the teams found and safely removed a total of 3,047 dangerous items from the land, including conventional anti-personnel mines, unexploded ordnance, small arms ammunitions and cluster munitions. 100% of prioritized EOD spot tasks were responded to and all identified items were removed and destroyed. All newly identified hazardous area reports were submitted to IKMAA, the national mine action authority in the KRI.
Map: Clearance activities implemented under the four-year project
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Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target
1.Number of National Mine Action Strategy on Ottawa compliance/residual n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a risk management produced 2.Number of National implementing 2 2 2 100% 100% partners trained and mentored10 3.Number of local staff trained and 155 n/a 10111 n/a n/a deployed Women 346 n/a 507 147% n/a 4.Community Focal Men 806 n/a 1,155 143% n/a Points/teachers trained Total 1,152 388 1,662 144% 428%
From November 2016 to February 2017, six national partner CL teams were funded under this project. Of the six partner CL teams three were from Al-Ghad and three from Work for Peace. The partner CL teams were already working under other donor funding, and as such were not recruited by MAG, but the national partner staff were included in MAG trainings and refresher trainings and workshops to build their capacity. MAG is still working with Work for Peace and currently has six Work for Peace teams deployed through funding from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs.
The CL teams funded under the project trained 1,662 community focal points and teachers, thereby reaching 144% of the target set at the proposal stage. Most of the CFPs and teachers were trained in the first year of the project as teams were working in new areas and building the CFP infrastructure. Comprising 1,155 out of a total of 1,662, 69% of the community focal points / teachers that were trained by CL teams were men and 31% were women. This percentage is approximately what MAG expected at the proposal stage with the target for men trained making up 70% of the total target of 1,152 CFPs / teachers trained. The higher number of men is because in Iraqi society community focal points are mostly men. However, CL teams are increasingly trying to target female teachers to ensure women are represented in MAG’s CFP structure which is also utilized as a feedback mechanism and for community reporting on contamination and accidents to CL staff.
10 Two national partners were subcontracted in the first year of activities. Although Y1 narrative report outlines the results achieved by partners’ teams, the logframe was erroneously missing results associated to this indicator. These are now added in the logframe attached with the final report. 11 This result has been calculated in Y4 to avoid double counting staff trained and deployed during the four years, but reflects the achievements over the total grant period.
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Emergency Response As mentioned above, the changeover in control of the disputed areas and forced stand down placed a considerable operational constraint on the teams conducting survey, clearance and RE in areas previously held by ISIS. But through the Dutch emergency funding MAG was still able to have a significant positive impact on communities in areas retaken from ISIS as well as IDP and host communities in the KRI affected by the conflict. Removal of improvised mines and other items of explosive ordnance, supplemented by greater knowledge of the threat, has reduced the threat to safety. Additionally, land release in Ninewa has enabled returning communities to rebuild their livelihoods and facilitate socio-economic reconstruction. RE and CFP trainings improved communities’ ability to identify and report explosive ordnance, building their capacity to greater security. For the emergency funded contract, no specific outcomes were set, in particular due to the highly dynamic population movements and the difficulty in locating the same beneficiaries throughout the length of the contract.
12,178 957 1,110,640 People reached EORE sqm through EORE sessions Of land released
through clearance and reduction 99 3,226 Community Focal Items found points trained and destroyed
OUTCOME 1
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Baseline Results target Target proposal target final target Indicator # # # # % % 1.1 Total number of direct Women n/a n/a 4,411 n/a n/a beneficiaries Men n/a n/a 5,998 n/a n/a Girls n/a n/a 8,722 n/a n/a Boys n/a n/a 7,726 n/a n/a Total 12,300 28,705 26,857 218% 93% 1.2 Total number of Women n/a n/a 5,916 n/a n/a indirect beneficiaries Men n/a n/a 6,183 n/a n/a Girls n/a n/a 5,904 n/a n/a Boys n/a n/a 5,717 n/a n/a Total n/a n/a 23,720 n/a n/a
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Through the emergency funding under this project, MAG reached 26,857 direct beneficiaries with clearance, risk education and CFP/teacher training in areas retaken from ISIS, including 4,411 women, 5,998 men, 8,722 girls and 7,726 boys. The target for direct beneficiaries that was set in the initial proposal for emergency funding was 12,300, as such MAG reached 218% of the proposal target. The final target that included expected results for the additional emergency funding in 2018 was 29,705 direct beneficiaries, meaning that 90% of the final target was reached. No separate targets were set for women, men, girls and boys or for indirect beneficiaries. Data on joint outcome indicators were not collected under the emergency project.
OUTCOME 2
% achieved of Proposal Final % achieved of Baseline Results proposal target Target final target target Indicator # # # # Women n/a n/a 3,309 n/a n/a 2.1 Number of Men n/a n/a 3,661 n/a n/a clearance/reduction Girls n/a n/a 4,376 n/a n/a direct beneficiaries Boys n/a n/a 3,174 n/a n/a Total 5,000 16,000 14,520 290% 91% Women n/a n/a 5,916 n/a n/a 2.2 Number of Men n/a n/a 6,183 n/a n/a clearance/reduction Girls n/a n/a 5,904 n/a n/a indirect beneficiaries Boys n/a n/a 5,717 n/a n/a Total n/a n/a 23,720 n/a n/a
Through clearance and reduction of improvised minefields MAG reached 14,520 direct beneficiaries (3,309 women, 3,661 men, 4,376 girls and 3,174 boys) between January 2017 and December 2018, representing 290% of the initial emergency proposal target and 91% of the final target including the additional funding in 2018. No separate targets were set for women, men, girls and boys or for indirect beneficiaries. The reduced risk to physical security for at-risk target groups through the removal and/or destruction of improvised mines and explosive ordnance allowed for safer movement of IDPs and returnees to their home villages.
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Photo: A deminer marking a high-threat area of an improvised minefield in Kfrok village, Tel Kaif district
OUTPUTS
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target Outcome 1: Security and stability is enhanced, risk of death and injury to individuals and communities reduced Indicator # # # Women n/a n/a 1,009 n/a n/a 1. Total number of Men n/a n/a 2,271 n/a n/a RE direct Girls n/a n/a n/a n/a 4,346 beneficiaries Boys n/a n/a Total n/a 12,705 12,178 n/a 96% 3. Total number of RE sessions n/a 849 957 n/a 113% delivered
Through the emergency funding CL teams directly reached 12,178 individuals (1,009 women, 2,271 men, 4,346 girls and 4,552 boys) with RE. In the initial emergency proposal no targets were set for the number of RE sessions and beneficiaries, but in the application for additional funding in 2018 the final target was set at 849 RE sessions with 12,705 direct beneficiaries. As such, with 957 RE sessions delivered the CL teams reached 113% of the final target for RE sessions and 96% of the target for RE beneficiaries.
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Map: Community liaison activities implemented under the emergency response
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target
Outcome 2: Enhanced resilience of vulnerable groups through Improved access to resources, livelihoods and socioeconomic reconstruction
Clearance 950,000 n/a 1,059,700 112% n/a
1.Total high priority Reduction n/a n/a 50,940 n/a n/a land released Cancellation n/a n/a 0 n/a n/a
TOTAL 950,000 1,514,000 1,110,640 117% 73% Items found and destroyed n/a n/a 3,226 n/a n/a 2. % prioritized EOD Spot Tasks 1 100% 100% removed/destroyed 3. % newly identified hazardous area reports submitted to national 1 100% 100% mine action authority
With 1,110,640m2 of land released in 2017 and 2018 under the emergency funding, the teams reached 117% of the initial emergency proposal target and 73% of the final target. The underperformance on the final target is related to the changeover of control from Kurdish forces to Iraqi Security Forces (ISF)
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and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) after which MAG lost operational access to large areas in Ninewa including where the emergency teams were deployed. As a result, MAG teams could not be deployed to operational areas in Ninewa under Federal Iraq control from October 2017 until July 2018 and instead Dutch-funded teams were redeployed to conventional clearance in the KRI. Although the clearance teams were redeployed to contaminated sites in the KRI, clearance of conventional minefields is a slower process due to the low metal content of conventional devices, which means that deminers have to investigate more signals, and thus release land at a slower rate. The Dutch teams have also deployed to conventional minefields in predominantly steep and more challenging terrain, which also impacts the rate at which clearance can be safely conducted.
During the clearance activities the teams found and safely removed a total of 3,226 dangerous items from the land, including improvised mines, booby traps, conventional mines, unexploded ordnance, small arms ammunitions and cluster munitions. 100% of prioritized EOD spot tasks were responded to and all identified items were removed and destroyed. All newly identified hazardous area reports were submitted to IKMAA, the national mine action authority in the KRI.
Map: Clearance activities implemented under the emergency response
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target
Outcome 3: Local capacity to support mine action activities strengthened, ensuring lasting impact
1.Number of National Mine Action Strategy on Ottawa compliance/residual n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a risk management produced
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2.Number of National implementing n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a partners trained and mentored 3.Number of local staff trained and n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a deployed Women n/a 49 n/a n/a 4.Community Focal Men n/a 50 n/a n/a Points/teachers trained Total 53 99 n/a 187%
There were no targets for strengthening local capacity under the emergency funding. Nonetheless, the CL teams trained 159 community focal points and teachers, including 93 women and 66 men. As aforementioned, it is often difficult for CL teams to reach women with CFP / teacher trainings because in Iraqi society community focal points are mostly men. However, the CL teams were able to reach more women by targeting female teachers to ensure women were represented in MAG’s CFP structure which is also utilized as a feedback mechanism and for community reporting on contamination and accidents to CL staff.
Reflection on cross-cutting issues:
Gender MAG is committed to gender mainstreaming across all programme areas in Iraq. CL teams are comprised of men and women to ensure that all members of the community can be reached, taking into consideration gender sensitivities especially during times of heightened tension. Under this project, MAG ensured that women were targeted as part of the survey and RE sessions delivered to the communities. In Sinjar, where some of the teams under this grant were deployed, MAG has the first female clearance team in the country. Some of the teams deployed under this grant included female deminers and medics. Female dog handlers were also recruited for IED search dog teams and Arab female deminers in Telafar District were recruited and deployed in 2018 supported by other donors.
Conflict Sensitivity MAG deployed CL capacity as part of its integrated mine action programme, tasked to collect information from the communities and local authorities regarding type and scale of contamination, identifying the most pressing needs and delivering EORE. The best way to understand the context and needs is by reflecting the make-up of the communities as much as possible in its teams. MAG hired staff for both the clearance and CL teams from the area in which they operate to ensure that they understand the local context and are accepted by the community. MAG staff routinely engage with local communities and local forces, to ensure that MAG’s understanding of the context remains accurate, and that any potential threats to MAG staff, or negative consequence of MAG’s work, can be mitigated.
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Under other donor projects, MAG partnered with Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) between 2019 and 2020 to integrate a housing, land, and property (HLP) rights approach to mine action activities in Ninewa to more effectively deal with disputed ownership of areas to be cleared. MAG CL and technical staff participated in a workshop delivered by NRC on information collection for HLP in October 2019. From that point, MAG CL teams collected HLP information and referring cases to NRC, as needed.
Innovation MAG Iraq uses an integrated approach to mine action, for clearance in conventional areas community liaison, mechanical assets and mine detection dogs (MDDs) work in with manual clearance to increase the efficiency of the activities. MAG has replicated this process in areas formerly under the control of ISIS, having already deployed manual teams and mechanical teams. MAG has also IED search dogs to identify contaminated areas and release areas where there is no suspected contamination. This type of work with dogs has never been carried out in the field by any HMA actor in the past but it has been used by the military. The IED search dog teams began work in 2019, deploying out of MAG’s Sinuni base, Sinjar District. MAG has also expanded the mechanical fleet and developed new attachments and process to speed up the work being done by the teams and improve safety for all staff. Some examples of these developments include using tine rake attachments to remove improvised landmines from the ground and use of a scarifying attachment (plough) at the front of an armoured tractor with a large loop detector on the back to improve efficiency and speed up land release.
As part of a programme level review of team compositions in Ninewa, many of the MTTs in the area were combined to form larger MATs. The MATs are more cost-effective on larger minefields while the smaller MTTs are more flexible and ideal to respond to smaller minefields and EOD spot tasks. Having a combination of MATs and MTTs in the area means MAG can respond to different types, sizes and locations of contamination in the most efficient and effective way to the overall contamination left behind. This change in structure is a reflection of MAG’s greater experience of the operating context in Ninewa, as the humanitarian crisis has developed, and the scope of contamination has become clearer.
Over the last couple of years of the project, MAG developed and rolled out mobile data collection and an online dashboard database to facilitate more effective and efficient analysis and decision making. The system consolidates and displays information on clearance and CL activities, as well as survey data for output and outcome indicators. The system allows the operations management to evaluate progress against indicators in near real time and adjust sampling plans for surveys as needed.
Sustainability The deminers and CL officers under this project were recruited locally from the areas where the teams were worked, meaning that Ninewa has local qualified deminers and trained CL personnel. Through this project, MAG is also building sustainable capacity of local communities through the training of CFPs, teachers and NGO staff on delivery of explosive ordnance safety and awareness messages to their communities. Community and religious leaders and teachers who are trained can continue to disseminate knowledge of explosive ordnance in the community long after MAG’s activities in the area
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have ended. Data collected on the contamination threats was fed into the national authority database to ensure their ownership and to keep the national contamination picture up to date.
Furthermore, by removing the threat from explosive hazards, MAG is providing a safe platform to not only facilitate the safe return of IDPs to newly secured areas, but also provide a safe foundation for stabilisation and reconstruction efforts in the region by assisting local authorities, UN agencies, and other humanitarian organisations.
Collaboration/coordination From November 2017 to February 2017 the project supported three CLTs of MAG’s national partner Al-Ghad in Kirkuk Governorate and three CLTs of national partner Work for Peace Diyala Governorate, each delivery EORE and collecting information of suspected contamination. MAG worked in close coordination with IKMAA for humanitarian mine action activities in the KRI and with the DMA in Federal Iraq. MAG works closely with national authorities to share contamination data and support the prioritization process. MAG also actively participates in the UNMAS-led Mine Action Sub Cluster (MASC) comprised of both humanitarian mine action organizations and commercial operators, and in the UNHCR-led Protection Cluster. MAG was the NGO co-lead for the MASC from the start of the project through until mid-2019. MAG advocated through the Protection Cluster for HMA activities in support of IDPs, refugees, returnees, and host communities. To prevent duplication of efforts, MAG liaised formally through the MASC and informally with commercial operators and other HMA actors operating in Iraq, including Humanity & Inclusion (HI), the Danish Demining Group (DDG), Fondation Suisse de Deminage/Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), Janus, and Optima. Over the course of the four year project, MAG partnered with Norwegian Refugee Council, HI and Work for Peace (a national NGO). MAG has been a key point of contact for NGOs in Iraq on matters relating to mine action, so MAG collaborated with both national and international NGOs through the cluster system and in providing EORE to NGO staff as they travel to and work in areas suspected to be contaminated.
Collaboration with NL Embassy During the four years of the project MAG has been in regular contacted with the Netherlands Embassy in Baghdad. The Consul-general has been really supportive for key advocacy efforts with relevant stakeholders and authorities, pushing for a clarity around NGO registration, mine action accreditation, access permissions and visa processes. In August 2017, MAG celebrated 25 years of operations in Iraq, which included an event with representatives of the Kurdistan mine action authority and Ministry of Foreign Relations as well as donors, mine action actors, NGOs and the media. At the event, the Dutch Deputy Consul-General, Jan van Renselaar, delivered a speech recognising the achievement as well as the need, and continued support, of mine action operations in Iraq.
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Photo: Dutch Deputy Consul-General for Erbil, Jan van Renselaar, speaking at MAG Iraq’s 25th Anniversary event in August 2017
In October and December 2020, MAG Iraq country director, Jack Morgan, met with Thomas van Hees and Mirte Bosh respectively in the stabilisation and humanitarian affairs portfolio to discuss MAG’s work in Iraq and Dutch support of operations.
Risk analysis review The major risk that affected operations in year 1 and year 2 was the government’s stance towards MAG operations in areas formerly held by ISIS. With the change in territorial control following the KRI independence referendum in September 2017, the operating environment for all mine action organisations changed significantly and prevented teams from being deployed for the last 2.5 months of year 1 and first six months of year 2 across Ninewa Governorate. From July 2018, MAG had obtained all necessary registration, accreditation, permissions and visas to carry out operations in these areas. MAG established an office in Baghdad, and senior programme staff travel there regularly to maintain positive communication with key federal authorities such as the Directorate of Mine Action.
Another risk to the security situation in Iraq came up at the end of year 3 and extended into year 4, an escalation in tensions between the US and Iran came to a head in December 2019, when Iranian rockets struck near the Erbil International Airport and at a base housing US troops in Anbar governorate. MAG monitored the situation and operations were able to continue. MAG conducts regular risk assessments and monitors the evolving security situation in Iraq.
The Covid-19 pandemic posed a new risk in year 4, threatening the health of employees and beneficiaries and disrupting planned operations through mitigation measures and government- imposed curfews and restrictions in the final months of the project. MAG Iraq developed mitigation measures to reduce the spread, which were incorporated into standard operating procedures as well as office and base environments and behaviour.
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Lebanon
Summary and evolution of the context:
Over the course of the project period, Dutch support has enabled MAG to deploy teams across both the south and north east regions of Lebanon, addressing historical landmine and cluster munition tasks in the south, and more recent contamination in the north east, including improvised landmines. Despite the many challenges faced over the course of this period, the partnership between MAG and the Netherlands has made a significant contribution to Lebanon’s efforts to address it’s mine and cluster munition contamination, building national capacity, and supporting Lebanon in achieving its clearance goals. During the life of the project, the level of contamination in country has decreased from a total area of 61km2 in 2016 to 41km2 by the end of 2019. An additional 641,655m2 of confirmed hazardous area was added to the database in North East Lebanon by the end of 2019.
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Jabhat Al-Nusra, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other non-state armed groups occupied the northeast region of Lebanon from 2014 until 2017, as a spillover from the Syrian civil war. The area was subsequently recaptured by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in 2017 and was found to contain a large number of improvised landmines, and other Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), as well as conventional landmines, cluster munitions and other items of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO). In 2017, the Lebanese government have approved for mine action activities to begin on the Blue Line. The densest minefield contamination in Lebanon, the Blue Line stretches 118km along the southern border, where an estimated 400,000 landmines were laid. MAG has been deploying clearance teams on the Blue Line since April 2017. In 2016, ERW victims decreased to seven, however rose again to 28 in 2017, 22 in 2018, before dropping to 13 in 2019. The victims were mainly men and boys working as farmers, or labourers in rural areas. According to UNDP’s socio-economic study conducted in 2019 and casualty data from LMAC, the influx of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has reversed the decreasing trend in the number of mines/ERW accidents occurring on Lebanese territory in recent years12.
MAG deployed teams to conduct battle area clearance (BAC) in Southern Lebanon and West Bekaa, and minefield clearance (MFC) on the Blue Line, South Lebanon. Landmines and cluster munitions pose an immediate humanitarian threat to Syrian refugees, and Lebanese host communities alike. Minefields and cluster munition strike sites block access to vital and fertile agricultural land and resources, hindering livelihoods and development for thousands of people in southern Lebanon, where agriculture is the main source of income. During the life of the project, MAG was able to deploy BAC and MFC teams for a total of 67 team months instead of the originally planned 60 team months due to savings and exchange rate gain. This has been reflected in the annual workplans and budgets submitted. MAG deployed a cost shared CL capacity for a total of 48 months to conduct pre/post IA, deliver EORE sessions, conduct non-technical survey and communicate MAG’s work to the community where the teams are deployed. In mid-July 2019 MAG Lebanon received emergency funds to deploy one multi-task team supported by cost shared community liaison and mechanical capacities funded by another donor to address new mine and UX0 contamination in North East Lebanon. The start date of the deployment of the teams was delayed until the beginning of 2020 due to challenges in procuring needed equipment and recruitment of staff. Two teams were deployed for eight months in total, four teams were deployed for a total of 6 teams’ months.
In terms of the wider social, economic and political context, the period of this project witnessed considerable upheaval and struggle affecting the country as a whole. Civil unrest on October 2019 saw countrywide protests against a Lebanese political institution framed around an established but fragile confessionalism system, which paralyzed the country for several weeks, affecting operations when roads were closed by protestors. Tensions on the southern border persisted, with sporadic clashes causing short term disruption to MAG programming to ensure the safety and security of its staff.
12https://www.lb.undp.org/content/lebanon/en/home/library/crisis_prevention_and_recovery/SocioEconomicBenefitsof MineActioninLebanon.html
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Another challenge faced during this project period was the deteriorating economic situation. Lebanon’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating downgrading and the emergence of a parallel exchange rate coupled with the failure of the Central Bank to fully service its foreign currency obligations has increased financial pressure across Lebanese society. The economic environment is characterized by national currency (Lebanese Pounds) devaluation and instability impacting prices, which have been rising quickly. This has led to a lower availability of some operational materials, and emerging difficulties accessing fuel and some imported goods. The harsh winter of 2018 forced teams to stand down when poor weather conditions prevented their deployment, with 50 working days lost. On August 4th 2020, the large explosion at the Beirut port claimed the lives of 200 people and caused widespread damage in the vicinity. This national tragedy further fomented unrest and dissatisfaction with the ruling government, and those lost were mourned across the country. MAG medics supported the emergency response, providing additional capacity to the Lebanese Red Cross, and technical staff carried out emergency assessments at military facilities within the blast radius to determine the damage sustained, and identify any urgent safety measures required. Another large explosion in southern Lebanon on the 22nd of September 2020 (an arms depot in Al Qanaa) In March 2020, Lebanon announced the first positive case of COVID-19 and within weeks the country entered a nationwide lockdown. MAG’s operations stood down for seven weeks between March and May 2020, and another two weeks in November 2020 after COVID-19 cases began to increase again. Over the course of the Covid pandemic, MAG Lebanon has sought to mitigate its impact on the delivery of mine action activities, with strict health and safety protocols introduced. A work from home modality was implemented for support staff, to reduce the risk of cases developing to the greatest extent possible.
Progress Review & Analysis of Results:
Southern Lebanon
During the course of this project period, tasks where the teams deployed were mainly agricultural, used for grazing livestock and gathering natural resources. Through impact assessment (IA) surveys conducted over the course of the project, 78% of the tasks enabled increased agricultural activity, while 7% will be used for infrastructure and 5% as natural resources. Due to the challenges mentioned in the summary which affected operations and team deployment, MAG clearance teams were unable to meet the land release target as planned. Further challenges restricted MAG’s ability to conduct post IA and post EORE surveys. These included the national lockdown in response to the spread of covid-19, the closure of schools and LMAC regulations which prohibited conducting EORE sessions in schools and limited the number of attendees in household sessions. MAG BAC clearance teams were deployed in the same area in West Bekaa over the course of the project. As BAC task sizes can increase when fading out from each item found, estimating the full size of a task and time required to complete it can prove challenging. With teams working on the same BAC
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tasks for an almost two year period, the number of new beneficiaries reported decreased over the course of the project, but MAG was still able to exceed the overall target.
MAG benefitted from a good relationship with the national authority and other actors in the country to increase clearance efficiency during the life of this grant. LMAC made changed to the national mine action standards (NMAS) reducing the depth of clearance on BAC tasks and the safety distance between deminers in specific minefields, in line with international mine action standards (IMAS) after discussions with MAG and other HMA organisations in country. This has positively affected clearance outputs, and served to counter challenges posed by the terrain and the high metal contamination in the areas where the teams were deployed.
Map: team deployment map in the South of Lebanon
.In 2019, MAG in coordination with LMAC received tasks dossiers and maps for minefields in Blida, Houla, Meiss El Jabal, Markaba, Amra and Arab El Louaize on the Blue Line. For the first time, MAG was provided these dossiers well ahead of deployment, which allowed MAG to conduct NTS and prioritise these tasks for increased impact. It also allows for effective utilisation of resources and deployment of teams.
MAG introduced the large loop in specific areas in West Bekaa where the terrain permitted its deployment. This has also affected clearance positively and allowed the teams to compensate for the
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days lost and challenges faced. MAG clearance teams were able to overachieve the land release target in year 3 due to early receipt of task dossiers, and changes in NMAS, as mentioned above
According to EORE post survey results, the average knowledge increase has exceeded the target throughout the project period. The diverse range of materials and methods used, has enabled MAG to tailor its messaging to different sections of the community, which has enhanced engagement with the sessions that have been delivered. The safe behaviour exceeded the target in many reports, however, it has been noticed that farmers and shepherds will still use the contaminated land despite knowing the danger since it is their only source of income and the current economic situation has heightened the need for agricultural land.
4,481 104 406,367 sqm People reached EORE Of land released through EORE sessions through clearance reduction and cancellation 40 1,774 Community Focal Items found points trained and destroyed
OUTCOME 1
TOTAL CONTRACT
Baseline Proposal Final Results % achieved % achieved target Target of proposal of final target target Indicator # # # # 1.1 Total number of direct Women -- -- 3,955 -- beneficiaries Men -- -- 4,195 -- Girls -- -- 6,718 -- Boys -- -- 6,877 -- Total 24,991 19,42213 21,745 87% 112% 1.2 Total number of Women -- -- 9,728 -- -- indirect beneficiaries Men -- -- 10,373 -- -- Girls -- -- 12,446 -- -- Boys -- -- 13,233 -- -- Total 65,710 41,688 45,780 70% 110%
13 The total number of direct beneficiaries target includes 44 CFP targeted for which a SADD breakdown was not included originally.
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% # % # % # % 1.3 Number of (%) direct Women 35% ------81% 148 85% beneficiaries surveyed Men 81% 256 90% reporting feeling safer 35% ------following land release and Girls 15% ------81% 143 88% RE activities Boys 15% ------81% 141 88% Total 926 81% 688 88% 1.4 Number of (%) direct Women 12% ------59 86% beneficiaries surveyed Men 10% ------81 87% reporting increased Girls 38% ------80 93% knowledge of ERW/mines Boys 40% ------78 89% following RE activities Total 376 82% 298 89% 1.5 Number of (%) direct Women 0 ------77 81% beneficiaries surveyed Men 0 ------106 80% demonstrating increased Girls 0 ------73 91% safe behaviour towards the Boys 0 ------73 92% dangers of ERW/mines Total 456 82% 329 85% following RE activities
Despite a slight decrease of direct and indirect beneficiaries in the final stage due to deployment on the same BAC task over three years, MAG was able to overachieve both targets especially during Year 2 when the team was first deployed in the tasks in West Bekaa.
The pre/post EORE survey results (percentage of people surveyed feel safer and the percentage of people surveyed showing increased knowledge) over achieved the target. The CL team is equipped with specifically designed RE training aids, including banners and posters, which are used during EORE sessions to be visually stimulating. Messages delivered are reinforced by the distribution of age- appropriate leaflets and booklets after sessions. The CL team uses different approaches to deliver the EORE messages according to different age groups. However, the number of people surveyed was less than proposed due to a smaller number of EORE beneficiaries than planned and the challenges that the team faced during the last two years of the project which affected the days worked and the mobility of the team. The number of people surveyed in the last year of the grant was significantly lower than what was initially planned because of COVID-19 related impediments. With schools being closed since Feb 2020, the CL team were unable to return back to the schools were EORE sessions were delivered under this project to conduct post surveys 3-6 months after the delivery of the sessions.
The percentage of people surveyed post EORE sessions who behaved in a safer manner is slightly below the target. Whilst there was an overachievement for responses from children, a lower positive response from men and women working in the fields led to an overall small underachievement for this indicator. During the sessions, it has been noticed that despite being aware of the dangers, some people still took the risk to enter contaminated land, as this is often the only source of livelihood and income available to them. MAG believed changing the perception of those left with no alternative is a challenge
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The percentage of direct beneficiaries surveyed reported increased knowledge and increase in safe behaviour is higher with children than men and women since some of men and women who are working as farmers and shepherds have a perception that they can handle dangerous items and it is more difficult to change their perception and behaviour.
During the lifespan of this project, 21,615 people (4,189 men, 3,932 women, 6,641 girls and 6,853 boys) directly benefited from the release of safe land through clearance activities conducted by MAG teams as tasked by the LMAC. The number of direct beneficiaries exceeded the target thanks to high impact tasks where MAG staff were deployed. A total of 45,780 people indirectly benefitted from land released (139% of this target). MAG teams worked in eight different communities in West Bekaa and Nabatieh regions and three different communities on the Blue Line. These communities largely consist of shepherds and agricultural farmers, who have benefitted from increased and safer access to productive land. This has contributed towards removing the threat of death or injury amongst priority communities in southern Lebanon and West Bekaa.
A total of 4,481 people (204 women, 133 men, 2,153 girls and 1,991 boys) benefitted from EORE sessions delivered by the CL Team during this grant period. An additional 38 people (17 women and 21 men) were trained as Community Focal Points.
OUTCOME 2
% achieved Proposal % achieved of Baseline Final Target Results of final target proposal target target Indicator # # # Women -- 7,000 -- 3,733 53% -- 2.1 Number of Men -- 8,550 -- 4,040 47% -- clearance/reduction Girls -- 1,705 -- 4,538 266% -- direct beneficiaries Boys -- 3,600 -- 4,913 136% -- Total 20,855 15,958 17,224 82% 107% Women -- 11,300 -- 9,728 86% -- 2.2 Number of Men -- 13,630 -- 10,373 76% -- clearance/reduction Girls -- 8,280 -- 12,446 150% -- indirect beneficiaries Boys -- 8,500 -- 13,233 156% -- Total 41,710 41,688 45,780 110% 109% # % # % # % Women 40% - - 130 81% 2.3 Number of (%) direct beneficiaries Men 40% - - 215 88% 1,296 80% surveyed reporting Girls -- - - 0 0% improved Boys -- - - 0 0% livelihoods Total -- - 345 85%
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2.4 Number of (%) Women 25% - - 126 78% direct beneficiaries Men 25% - - 211 70% surveyed reporting 885 80% Girls 20% - - 60 71% improved access to services and Boys 20% - - 64 66% infrastructure Total -- - 461 72% Agriculture 61% 25% 65% 78% Grazing 0 40% 0% 1% Community 5% 0% 2% 2% 2.5 % of cleared development and reduced land Housing 27% 11% 11% 4% used productively Infrastructure 7% 3% 22% 7% Natural 0 10% 0% 5% resources Access 0 11% 0% 2%
Targets for Outcome 2.3 Whilst the overall target for this indicator was met, there was a slight underachievement in terms of responses from women. This reflects responses in the final year of the project, where it was indicated that though some of the task area was cleared, some beneficiaries would not feel comfortable using the land until it had been completely cleared and formally returned to the community. Targets for Outcome 2.4 number of direct beneficiaries surveyed reporting improved access to infrastructure and services was underachieved. The MAG CL team experienced some challenges with this indicator, including gathering responses from children during post IA surveys, as well as adults surveyed reporting that there was no planned infrastructure or service development on the sites, and so answering negatively in response to these questions. The target was increased part way through the project period based on anticipated land use across all donor funded teams, however the tasks that the Dutch funded team worked on continued to principally be for agricultural purposes, leading to a lower achievement against this target. Over the course of the project the number of beneficiaries surveyed decreased, reflecting the lower number of new project beneficiaries over the course of the project. As noted above, the primary reason for this was teams spending longer periods of time working a smaller number of larger tasks, leading to fewer opportunities for new beneficiaries to be identified. The impact of Covid-19 in the final year of the project, also affected MAG’s ability to survey beneficiaries.
The primary productive use of land post clearance was for agricultural purposes, which accounted for 78% of the land released during this project. Deviation from the baseline and the target is explainable because MAG clearance teams remained on the same area for about two years, which was mainly used for agricultural purposes. MAG cannot anticipate the completion date of a BAC task due to fade out procedures. This significant proportion reflects that agriculture is a primary livelihood activity in this region of Lebanon. As highlighted above, one challenge that MAG experienced was that farmers, driven by economic necessity, often used land that they knew to be contaminated, despite MAG’s messaging, meaning that they reported less improvement to their livelihoods than would have been the case had they not already been using the land.
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OUTPUTS.
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target
Indicator # # # Women 370 -- 204 55% -- Men 120 -- 133 111% -- 1. Total number of RE Girls 139% -- direct beneficiaries 1,550 -- 2,153 Boys 102% -- Total 4,000 3,420 4,48114 112% 131% Women 2,220 - - n/a n/a Men 720 - - n/a n/a 2. Total number of RE Girls 9,300 - - n/a n/a indirect beneficiaries Boys 11,760 - - n/a n/a Total 24,000 - - n/a n/a 3. Total number of RE sessions 105 89 10415 99% 117% delivered
During the grant period, MAG CL Team was able to deliver 104 EORE sessions. Puppet shows and power point presentations were delivered in schools, along with safety briefing at the field using flip charts and brochures. EORE activities directly reached 4,481 beneficiaries, the vast majority of which are children. According to the SBDs version 1, released in late 2016, reporting of indirect EORE beneficiaries was discouraged, therefore MAG didn’t reach or report against associated targets presented at the proposal stage.
Late in 2019, MAG received the approval from the national authority to deliver EORE sessions in public schools where the majority of Syrian students attend. MAG started to increase session rates in schools to cover as many schools as possible. However, in early 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic all schools were closed and this activity was postponed.
As well as the closure of schools, the LMAC instructed MAG to cease delivery of EORE sessions in community settings, to mitigate the spread of the pandemic, further impacting MAG’s progress against its EORE targets. MAG was unable to deliver EORE sessions in March 2020 when the country lockdown was in place, and in September 2020 as the COVID-19 cases increased significantly. When EORE sessions were allowed during the pandemic, the number of attendees were limited to a maximum of 10 per session. This had affected the number of sessions delivered, number of beneficiaries and number of beneficiaries surveyed post EORE.
14 After a revision of the internal database, MAG identified a formula error which has impacted Y1 reporting. Y1 achievements have been revised accordingly. The total number of Re beneficiaries have been revised from 1,466 to 1,594. 15 As above, RE sessions delivered changed from 31 to 34.
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% achieved Proposal Final % achieved of Results of proposal target Target final target target Outcome 2: Enhanced resilience of vulnerable groups through Improved access to resources, livelihoods and socioeconomic reconstruction Clearance -- 489,000 452,358 378,867 77% 85% 1.Total high Reduction ------2,500 -- -- priority land Cancellation ------25,000 -- -- released TOT 489,000 452,358 406,367 83% 90% Items found and destroyed ------1774 -- --
MAG deployed two MATs to conduct BAC for a total of 56 months and two MATs to conduct MFC for a total of 11 months. Manual clearance activities were effectively supported by MAG’s cost-shared mechanical capacity subject to the type of terrain and density of vegetation. The teams were able to clear an area of 378,867 sqm and destroy 1,774 items (1,276 AP mines, 498 cluster munitions and UXOs).
As explained above, operational difficulties arose during the four years where ground and terrain conditions slowed down the clearance pace. Extreme weather conditions during the rainy season in Lebanon, more than the regularly planned days, affected team activities and caused loss of outputs. Very high vegetation and metal contamination on a number of tasks reduced clearance rates per each team. Various other challenges experienced over the course of the four years (civil unrest, COVID-19) also contributed to this result.
% achieved Proposal Final % achieved of Results of proposal target Target final target target Outcome 3: Local capacity to support mine action activities strengthened, ensuring lasting impact 1.Number of National Mine Action Strategy on Ottawa compliance/residual - - - - - risk management produced
2.Number of National implementing - - - - - partners trained and mentored
3.Number of local staff trained and - - - - - deployed Women 18 4.Community Focal Points/teachers Men 23 trained Total 48 44 40 79% 86%
MAG CL Teams train focal points during their EORE sessions to ensure flow of information between the community and the organization over time. During the life of this grant period, the CL team trained 38
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focal points (17 women and 21 men). Lockdown periods due to COVID-19 and restrictions posed by the national authorities to minimize physical interactions at the community affected this output.
Ensuring a continuing capacity building of its staff MAG conducted several trainings on operational efficiency during this grant. It includes trainings on Non-Technical Survey, Technical Survey and effective clearance methodologies, extensively during winter periods. One Technical Field Manager and one Field Operations Officer attended training on operations efficiency, conducted by GICHD and LMAC. One of MAG’s Senior Field Operations Managers also passed an EOD level 3 course at Regional Demining School in Hamana, and on the programme level several trainings were delivered; the Programme Officer went through training on gender mainstreaming and conflict sensitivity and three CLOs attended a training session on NTS in the regional school for demining. MAG national managers went through a leadership training and management cycle. The Information Management department along with two Team Leaders completed a Differential GPS (Survey 123) training session, followed by practical implementation in completion tasks. The MAG Technical Operations Manager (TOM) along with Technical Field Managers and Field Operations Managers conduct quarterly field assessments of all staff. Two refresher trainings per year have been completed under this project in coordination with the Regional Mine Action Centre (RMAC). Since 2019, the programme incorporated gender and diversity in mine action training into refresher training that is delivered to all staff upon employment and after stand down periods. GICHD (former GMAP) conducted assessments for the national mine action authorities and how gender is being mainstreamed in mine action in Lebanon, in light of that GICHD conducted trainings on gender and inclusion in mine action on the national level (LMAC) and the programme level (MAG) during the life of this grant. Gender and inclusion focal points have been deployed in MAG and at LMAC to ensure necessary workplans and self-evaluations are conducted regularly. During the third year of the grant, GICHD supported the Lebanese national authority to adopt appropriate policies and practices to mainstream gender. A capacity development visit lasted 10 days lead to a thorough assessment of gender and diversity mainstreaming in mine action in Lebanon and the development of a clear road map for future gender and diversity mainstreaming efforts. Gender mainstreaming has been added to the national mine action strategy 2020-2025 as a result of GICHD’s intervention. Emergency Contract:
30 7 217,936 sqm People reached EORE Of land released through EORE sessions through clearance
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OUTCOMES
Final Target Results % achieved of final target Indicator # # 1.1 Total number of Women -- 275 -- direct beneficiaries Men -- 328 -- Girls -- 353 -- Boys -- 305 -- Total N/A 1,261 N/A 1.2 Total number of Women -- 19,781 -- indirect beneficiaries Men -- 32,177 -- Girls -- 39,139 -- Boys -- 24,023 -- Total N/A 115,120 N/A
Final Target Results % achieved of final target
Indicator # # Agriculture -- 20%
Grazing -- 71% Community -- 0% 2.5 % of cleared development and reduced land Housing -- 1%
Outcome2 used productively Infrastructure -- 0% Natural resources -- 0% Access -- 8%
Under the emergency funds, MAG clearance activities directly benefitted 1,261 people living and working in North East Lebanon and indirectly benefitted 115,120 people in the wider community. The large number of beneficiaries is a result of the deployment of teams in cherry orchards prior to the cherry season, where thanks to clearance, farmers and cherry pickers were able to safely benefit from the cherry season which indirectly benefitted the whole community. 71% of the land where the clearance team worked is used by shepherds for grazing; the remaining land is used for agriculture and access to agricultural land. At the proposal stage, MAG had limited prior experience working in this area of Lebanon, and so was unable to establish targets for all output and outcome indicators at this stage.
Outputs:
Outcome 1: Security and stability is enhanced, risk of death and injury to individuals and communities reduced
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Final Target Results % achieved of final target Indicator # # 1. Total number of Women -- 12 -- RE direct Men -- 14 -- beneficiaries Girls -- 0 -- Boys -- 4 -- Total N/A 30 N/A 3. Total number of RE sessions N/A 7 N/A delivered Outcome 2: Enhanced resilience of vulnerable groups through Improved access to resources, livelihoods and socioeconomic reconstruction 1.Total high priority Clearance 33,600 217,936 648% land released Reduction ------Cancellation ------TOTAL 33,600 217,936 648%
Items found and destroyed -- 32 --
The clearance teams were able to overachieve the clearance target and release an area of 217,936m2. At time of writing the proposal MAG assumed an average clearance rate of 30m2/deminer/day which is the average clearance rate of BAC, MFC and IED tasks. During the life of this project, MAG clearance teams were only deployed on BAC tasks, which have the highest anticipated clearance rate. The terrain on the BAC tasks also enabled the use of the large loop detector, which further enhanced the clearance rate, leading to the substantial overachievement against this target.
Map: team deployment map in the North East of Lebanon.
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MAG CL teams delivered seven EORE sessions for people working in the area directly benefitting farmers and daily workers (12 women, four boys and 14 men). Whilst national lockdowns affected deployment of teams, due to the lower number of attendees at EORE sessions in this part of the country, the new Covid-19 restrictions put in place by the LMAC to limit the number of EORE sessions attendees did not impact MAG’s work in the North East in the same way it did in the South.
Reflection on cross-cutting issues:
Gender MAG continues to work according to the recommendations of the Gender in Mine Action Programme (GMAP, now GICHD) who conducted an initial review of gender mainstreaming in the programme in 2012 and an evaluation of achievements in January 2015. MAG appointed a gender focal point in the programme and worked on creating a gender and inclusion workplan for 2019-2020 and incorporated gender and inclusion in the programme’s strategy 2021-2023. In 2019, MAG formally assigned safeguarding focal points in the programme for dealing with raised concerns and complaints. These focal points went through an extensive workshop later in 2020 to enable them to handle situations effectively and enhance proper reporting. Further training for all staff is planned around the end of 2020.
In 2016, MAG engaged support from GMAP to carry out a two-day gender training workshop with the LMAC. Many of the attendees reported having a better understanding of gender and diversity in mine action following the workshop. In 2018, GMAP carried out a gender and diversity assessment of LMAC in order to verify if knowledge gained during the workshop has been applied. LMAC incorporated gender mainstreaming into their national mine action strategy 2020-2025 and assigned a gender focal point who will undergo an extensive training (late in 2020) to support and ensure gender and inclusion is mainstreamed in mine action. MAG deploys a gender-balanced CL capacity to help reach those most at risk from UXO contamination within the target communities, irrespective of gender or age. The team also utilised methodologies tailored to the specific vulnerabilities of women, girls, boys and men, using different materials and approaches to make EORE sessions as relevant and engaging as possible. The programme also deploys mixed clearance teams and is always seeking new funding opportunities to increase the percentage of females working in the programme. Since September 2016, the % of females in MAG increased from 18% to 19.1% in August 2020. The % of females in support management staff is 50% and 44% of the SMT are females in August 2020. All our clearance teams are mixed teams and the CL teams are 50% females to allow us better reach all community members and to tailor our activities, plans and approach to the needs of different groups in the communities. By August 2020, the programme has three female TLs and 1 SS who passed Field Operations Manager course. The programme has recruited a female TFM for our AMD project. The programme made changes to the recruitment wording and added photos of females in action and made
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sure to use our social media, a well-known recruitment site to announce for vacancies to ensure it reaches all groups in the community.
Conflict Sensitivity National staff members are mostly recruited from villages and communities within MAG operational area and aware of all sensitivities related to conflict, and social conventions. MAG has an excellent reputation in the areas where its teams have been operating, and is accepted by the diverse political groups and local authorities. The CL team comprising one female and one male CLO managed by a highly experienced CLM, ensures all members of the affected communities are targeted taking into consideration diversity, inclusion and gender sensitivities. Under the Emergency Fund project which took place in the North East of Lebanon, MAG ensured to deploy staff from the area of intervention with the exception of operational managers and supervisors (team leader, site supervisor and FOMs level) from the south, to make use of existing higher management experience and capacity and give efficiency to the teams’ deployment in the North East. During the life of this project, MAG initiated a plan to build the capacity of the local staff in the North East with a team leader course which will allow in due time, for local staff to reach higher levels of qualification.
Innovation MAG started an NTS project in Lebanon in 2019 following the NTS project conducted in 2014. MAG received tasks lists from LMAC for the CL teams to conduct survey, to either confirm contamination (confirmed hazardous area) and the need for further technical survey, or lead to cancellation if no evidence of contamination is present. The survey supports updating of tasks in the national database (IMSMA). According to LMAC’s annual reports, operational efficiency has greatly improved through increased use of non-technical survey and technical survey. In 2019, MAG carried out trials for the clearance of anti-vehicle (AV) mines on the Blue Line, under the supervision of RMAC. AV mines are laid close to the technical fence, and if destroyed with conventional explosive means, would likely cause damage to the fence. MAG has maintained an ongoing discussion with the LMAC, to assess alternative approaches, and the feasibility of destroying the AV mines through non-explosive means. Several trials were conducted late in 2019 and early 2020 in order to dispose of the AV mines by burning instead of detonating them, which generates much less noise and less impact on the technical fence. Following the successful trials, MAG created SOPs for the non-explosive AV mine clearance procedure, which were approved, enabling MAG teams to start working on AV minefield tasks in November 2020. Additionally, having received new permissions to deliver EORE sessions in public schools during the project period, MAG is now able to reach new at-risk groups, including Syrian refugees who can only attend the public schools. MAG discussed with the national authority the possibility of conducting these sessions in the afternoon period when the majority of refugees go to school and received an initial approval before the lockdown period as a result of COVID-19. MAG initiated the process of implementing Survey 123 in Lebanon, which will allow data to be entered electronically at field level (on tablet) reducing the amount of manual data entry and supporting better
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analysis. Data will be available on the spot and compatible with IMSMA core at the national level, allowing better collection of information.
Sustainability This four years project contributed to lasting effects for beneficiaries in the South of Lebanon and in the Bekaa in terms of a greater perception and actual safety and security. Clearance of cluster munitions and other explosive items supported enabled vulnerable communities in conducting socio-economic activities in safety. Both host communities and Syrian refugees benefited from these reduced risks, which is crucial given the competition for limited resources resulting from large numbers of Syrian refugees. Thanks to Netherlands MFA support, in the past four years GICHD (former GMAP) supported the Lebanese national authority to adopt appropriate policies and practices to mainstream gender with a view to reinforce a sustainable national capacity. Commitment from senior management on gender mainstreaming is a prerequisite for progress in this area and LMAC management appear committed. The establishment of a Gender Focal Point and stated intention to mainstream gender and diversity more systematically in the new strategy are clear evidence of this. By ensuring that HMA personnel are well prepared, safe work procedures and practices are applied and that due consideration is given to environmental impact, the level of risk to personnel and the environment can be greatly reduced. MAG works under a comprehensive environmental Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) which details actions to manage any potential negative effects on the environment. Clearance sites are left in the state in which they were found. Additionally, the Mechanical team leave the ground in a state as close to original as possible, with all pits and holes refilled and topsoil replaced. Mechanical assets are properly maintained to prevent leak of oil or other fluids into the environment. Comprehensive post-demolition clear-up takes place, with the minimum number of explosives possible used and full detonation carried out through application of appropriate drills and procedures. MAG is continuously building the capacity of the LMAC and national staff to enable national ownership of the sector in Lebanon. By the last year of this project, only nine expats are deployed in the programme constituting 3% of the whole intervention. During the grant period, the MAG CL team conducted training sessions for 38 focal points (21 men and 17 women), contributing to build stainable RE capacity in different communities. The CL team chooses the focal points based on information gathered during pre-clearance assessment reports to act as key personnel to keep MAG informed of any changes in the community, such as new families arriving, and people talking about finding a UXO while using land. The CL team also trained focal points in schools where the EORE sessions were conducted and made sure that RE beneficiaries are aware of these focal points so that they can share any concerns with them, which are in turn relayed to MAG.
Collaboration/coordination MAG worked closely with the LMAC to make necessary changes to the National Mine Action Standards (NMAS) that directly affect clearance productivity to enhance effectiveness in specific areas and conditions. LMAC has approved several changes such as the depth of search on battle area clearance
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sites, and the safety distance between deminers in specific minefields on the Blue Line. These changes were effective as of January 2019 and positively affected productivity and allowed teams to compensate for the challenges they faced in the tasks due to very high vegetation and metal contamination. The positive relationship between MAG and other HMA organisations in country and the national authority played a role in achieving such significant changes. In December 2019, MAG attended the Lebanese Mine Action Programme strategy workshop. Gathering LMAC representatives, donors and mine action operators, this workshop aimed at developing a 5-year strategy for the mine action sector in Lebanon. The final draft was issued early 2020. MAG works closely with other HMA operators in country. MAG attends the Technical Working Group along all other operators in country and discuss technical issues and suggestions in details. MAG runs three projects in partnership with another HMA operator in country, NPA. The close relation between the two organisations also allowed them to better influence and build the capacity of the national authority.
Collaboration with NL Embassy MAG maintains a close relationship with the Embassy in country. The country director conducts meeting with the embassy to discuss the grant progress, plans and initiatives that the programme is working on. Field visits are also arranged upon the request of the embassy. In March 2019 MAG hosted hosted a visit from the Olivia Douwes and other Dutch representatives to operations in southern Lebanon.
Risk analysis review: The programme revised three of the risk categories throughout the life of this project; security aspect, economical and health.
Security: In September 2019, cross border indirect fire took place between Lebanon and Israel, though these incidents did not occur on or near operational sites. MAG operational teams were stood down until the situation became calmer, and MAG was in continuous coordination with UNIFIL and LMAC during this period. Rising political and economic uncertainty is leading to increased civil protest with attendant risks to operational continuity should access and safety routes be blocked (as has happened in October 2019). In addition to the loss of life of hundreds of people and widespread damage caused by the August 4th Beirut explosion, the catastrophe refuelled the discontent of protesters accusing the political leaders of direct responsibility. Political and economic uncertainty continue with increasingly forceful protests, rising violent crime and incidents of sectarianism. Subsequent fires in the port area on the 10th of September 2020 and protests in downtown Beirut as well as another large explosion in southern Lebanon (an arms depot in Al Qanaa on 22nd September) have created an increasingly pervasive sense of vulnerability and desperation. MAG monitored the situation closely and revised operational plans and security protocols as necessary. Health: COVID-19 cases continue to increase in Lebanon and kept on affecting operations. The Lebanese government announced lock down for almost two months starting March 2020. Over the course of the covid pandemic, MAG have sought to mitigate its impact on the delivery of mine action
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activities, with strict health and safety protocols introduced for operational teams, and many support staff working from to try and reduce the risk of cases developing to the greatest extent possible. Economic: Lebanon’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating downgrading and the emergence of a parallel exchange rate coupled with the failure of the Central Bank to fully service its foreign currency obligations reflects growing financial pressure. The economic environment is characterized by national currency (Lebanese Pounds) devaluation and instability impacting prices, which have been rising quickly. Lebanon’s extreme dependence on imports and its current struggle to settle USD payments lead to a lower availability of some operational materials, and emerging difficulties accessing fuel and some imported goods. Many sellers will only accept USD cash or transfers of “fresh” USD from outside Lebanon to USD accounts in Lebanon and in some cases overseas. To limit the impact of fuel shortages, cash payments to suppliers, and avoid a severe disruption of operations, MAG put in place a number of mitigation measures. Firstly, the logistics departments kept constant communication with the gas stations in order to be alerted of an upcoming strike or fuel shortage in order to refill teams’ car tanks before they take place. Secondly, MAG identified preferred suppliers accepting bank transfers as payments for essential teams’ consumables or tools when needed during the crisis. MAG has a bulk purchases policy, which ensured that most consumables were procured before the crisis. This allowed quicker and more flexible purchases due to the dearth of dollars in banks.
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South Sudan
Summary and evolution of the context The original proposal cites contamination figures from the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) report of April 2016, identifying 785 known hazardous areas (HAs) to be cleared amounting to 96.04 km2. By the end of August 2020, there were 474 known HAs amounting to 19.4km2, according to IMSMA.
The accident/death rate, as recorded in IMSMA data, has remained relatively steady during the reporting period. However, MAG notes that under-reporting of mine/ERW accidents is very likely given the poor communication, medical, and transportation infrastructure in South Sudan.
The following charts show the number of victims of mine/ERW accidents both in South Sudan, and in the area of operations:
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Number of EO Victims in CES and EES(excluding demining accidents): 1 January 2016 to 30 August 2020 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 Injured - Male 10 Injured - Female 5 0 Death - Male Death - Female
Graph. Comparison of Victims South Sudan overall vs. Project period and location (IMSMA data).
MAG initially proposed a 48-month project to take place in Budi and Torit counties; however, the crisis of 2016 led MAG to suspend operations in South Sudan. As a result, at the inception phase the project was modified to 42 months and clearance targets were reduced from 1,208,400m2 to 967,200. Working closely with UNMAS, MAG identified Tindilo payam, of Terekeka county, as one of the few locations secure enough for operations in 2017.
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As planned MAG deployed one clearance team, known as a multi-task team (MTT)16, and one community liaison team (CLT). During the first year of the project, MAG found that tasks in Tindilo payam—especially tasks in the Peri community (including the section called Dengele where the Dutch- funded teams were working initially) produced very high outputs. Across all teams, outputs in Tindilo were 5% higher than outputs in other areas where MAG had worked in the previous three years (Lainya, Twic East, Juba, and Magwi counties).
As a result of the initial strong performance, MAG had hoped that the team would be able to make up outputs above the original target, despite the reduction in team months. However, the team encountered a number of contextual challenges. First, some security concerns (described below under “security”) caused the team to be kept in camp for a number of days. Second, in 2019, a more extreme than normal wet season caused flooding along the route to Tindilo, making the CASEVAC route unusable. The team was asked to relocate, however, the road conditions were extremely poor (with muddy conditions along the marram roads and bridges and areas along the road completely washed away) and it took weeks for the team evacuate from Tindilo.
Operationally, the team encountered two types of challenges that slowed clearance. In Sitto, in Tindilo payam, the team encountered highly mineralized soil. Mineralized soil (soil that contains minerals that are magnetic) is frequently found in small pockets of the land in the Equatorias region. Ground below where charcoal had previously been made can also have a similar effect. It causes the Large Loop Metal Detector (LLMD) at its normal settings to emit a constant signal, and therefore the teams must use a different type of configuration that allows the deminer to detect the targeted item but distinguishing it from the mineralized soil. However, this configuration of the LLMD covers less area, and therefore slows clearance. While many MAG teams encounter mineralized soil in small pockets of their task, mineralized soil was a more significant problem than average in the Sitto area. Furthermore, in tasks along the Juba- Nimule highway, high levels of domestic scrap metal left behind by residents who fled, also slowed operations. Each signal emitted by the LLMD needs to be investigated, which is a time consuming process.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic led MAG to suspend operations in late March 2020. In order to resume operations, each team was required by UNMAS to complete a three-week “re-training” due to the length of the stand-down. The Dutch-funded team remobilized in August 2020 and completed re- training, however, could not begin operations before the end of the grant. Although unable to resume operations under Dutch funding, the team was moved to another source of funding beginning in September, and the support provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allowed this team to begin operations seamlessly, without the need for further refresher training, therefore contributing to efficient clearance in South Sudan.
During the project period, the clearance team operated in Tindilo payam of Terekeka county, Central Equatoria state, and the Amee Junction area of Magwi county, along the Juba-Nimule highway. The
16 The proposal and early reports refer to this team as a mine action team or MAT. In MAG’s South Sudan programme, we refer to most of our clearance teams as MTTs, and there is little to no difference between a MAT and an MTT. This report refers to MTTs to be consistent with MAG’s actual team names.
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community liaison team had a greater reach, operating in and around Yei town, Terekeka town (about half way between Juba and Tindilo), and throughout Magwi county, including Magwi town.
Tindilo and Terekeka county are home to the Mundari community, an agro-pastoralist community. Because many members of the communities migrate seasonally to different grazing areas with their cattle, they are at risk of accidents when travelling by foot across large distances, when clearing areas for their cattle camps (cattle keepers have been known to move ERW), and when using scrap metal, which could include PM1 sub-munitions to make bells for their cattle.
In Magwi county, however, the local communities’ primary means of livelihood is agriculture, making good use of the fertile land. Community members in this region are at risk while farming, as – for example - a hard blow with a hoe could set off a PM1 sub-munition. In addition, there are scrap metal collectors who risk encountering EO when searching for scrap metal to be sold for recycling.
A unique feature of this project was the targeting of teachers for training as community focal points. Initially, MAG had aimed to conduct teacher training using the curriculum being developed by the NMAA. However, the teacher training curriculum was significantly delayed and not available for the teams’ use at the project outset. Therefore the Dutch-funded CL team focused on training teachers as community focal points. Although during the project period the curriculum was approved, funding for this training was provided with funding from UNICEF and implemented by an NNGO (Saves Lives Initiative South Sudan) to conduct this activity and MAG continued to focus on training teachers as community focal points instead.
The biggest deviation from the proposal was as a result of the crisis of July 2016, during which renewed fighting spread through the Equatoria region. The upheaval in the country and rapid deterioration of the security situation required MAG to close down operations and ultimately—following UNMAS directions—execute a planned evacuation. This took place very early in the project period and during the inception phase the project was modified to take into account the temporary evacuation from South Sudan, with the number of operational months reduced from 48 to 42 months, and the clearance targets proportionally reduced to 967,200m2. At this stage, the initial area of operations was also affected by the new context, and following a thorough security assessment, Tindilo payam in Terekeka county was identified as a relatively secure location. The Dutch-funded teams worked in Terekeka county along with other MAG teams funded by different donors.
Although Terekeka county was relatively secure in comparison to other parts of the country, there were some security concerns during the project period. In July 2018, a MAG Community Liaison (CL) team was ambushed along the road between Tindilo and Terekeka town, and a WFP convoy was also soon ambushed in the same location. This insecurity led to the identification of an alternative route, increasing dry season travel time from approximately 6 hours to approximately 10 hours. In October 2018, violent inter-communal clashes between cattle keepers in the area surrounding Terekeka town stopped the CL team from conducting mine risk education (MRE) operations. Finally, in late 2018 and early 2019, the presence of an armed group transiting through Tindilo payam, and in particular Sitto, where the Dutch-funded MTT was working, required teams to remain in camps until the threat level posed by the group was thoroughly assessed and it was considered safe to undertake operations.
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The proposal to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs was one of the first proposals to include placements of NMAA staff on MAG teams for on-the-job training. Initially MAG had planned to place staff in a number of short secondments/internships in which they would be trained to deputy team leader level. During the implementation of this activity, however, it was found that NMAA staff often already had EOD certificates, but were lacking in field experience. Furthermore, it was felt that most NMAA staff were more likely to use the skills gained while working with MAG conducting quality assurance once they had resumed their work with the NMAA. Because of this, the skills specific to a team leader or deputy team leader, which focus more on team management, were, it was felt, not necessarily the most useful ones for seconded staff to learn. Therefore, MAG has accepted NMAA staff for longer placements (usually around one year) so that they could gain significant field experience. NMAA staff who have returned to the NMAA and participated in external quality assurance (EQA) visits alongside UNMAS EQA officers have reported a more acute awareness and ease in spotting conformities and non-conformities thanks to the longer duration of field work.
At the proposal stage, MAG had initially planned for the MTT to conduct both minefield clearance and battle area clearance of cluster munitions. However, as noted in the proposal, BAC clearance has been a priority in South Sudan due to the increasing number of previously unidentified BAC tasks being reported to IMSMA. Although Tindilo was contaminated with antipersonnel mines, anti-tank mines, cluster munitions and other ERW, the cluster munition contamination was most significant. Furthermore, MAG had a number of teams funded by other donors deployed to the area in 2017-2019 which had access to large and medium mechanical assets that can clear minefields more efficiently. Therefore, the Dutch-funded team focused their efforts predominantly on BAC.
Progress Review & Analysis of Results 17 In Sitto and Amee junction, the clearance team encountered mineralized soil. Mineralized soil causes the Large Loop Metal Detector (LLMD) to emit a constant signal preventing it from being used effectively for clearance. To remedy this problem, the settings and configuration of the LLMD must be changed so that the LLMD covers a smaller area (known as a 1x1 configuration) and this slows clearance. This had an effect on outputs under this grant.
27,742 1,253 856,607 sqm People reached EORE Of land released through EORE sessions through clearance
17 Final targets reported in this section reflect an adjustment to Y4 workplan. As notified to the Ministry on the 15th April 2020, tables included in Y4 workplans have been erroneously taken from Y3 workplans, therefore they didn’t reflect Y4 targets as intended (and as per narrative).
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154 2,134 Community Focal Items found points trained and destroyed
Across MAG projects and areas of operations, a common challenge is local residents moving warning signs and pickets (bamboo pickets can be useful, for example to make traps for hunting or a walking sticks, and children sometimes try to play with these signs). To mitigate this, MAG’s community liaison teams work with the community to ensure they understanding the meanings of these warning signs and the importance of not moving them. However, in the Tindilo area, the teams had little success when initially speaking directly with the community. Therefore, the team liaised with the paramount chief who went to local churches and other gathering places to reinforce this message; this was found to be a more successful approach.
In late 2018 and early 2019, an armed opposition group began moving through Terekeka county, including Tindilo payam. In particular, this group often moved through Sitto, the village where the Dutch-funded clearance team was working. Although a detailed in-person security assessment took place and determined that the group was engaging with local authorities as part of the peace process and therefore was not a direct threat to MAG, concerns about possible escalation18 meant that for a number of days it was considered advisable for the team to remain in camp. Subsequently, MAG focused on monitoring the situation in case of a sudden deterioration that could affect MAG, while recognizing that, as things stood, the group was not posing any direct threat to the teams.
In October 2018, there were clashes in Terekeka county—near Terekeka town—between groups of cattle keepers. Although this incident did not directly affect MAG teams, the community liaison teams operating out of Terekeka town remained in camp for a few days as a precaution.
MAG was able to operate in Tindilo and Terekeka county throughout 2017 and 2018, despite heavy rains in 2017. However, the rainy season of 2019 was especially severe in the East African region, leading to considerable flooding throughout the country. As a result of flooding, parts of MAG’s CASEVAC route were unpassable. As SOPs require a working CASEVAC route, MAG took the decision to redeploy the teams to another high priority area in the Equatoria region—to Amee Junction which is where the road to Magwi town branches off of the Juba-Nimule highway. This area is similar to the area presented during the original proposal, although the population is significantly depleted following the crisis of 2016.
EORE can be very valuable in areas where mine action is not yet taking place, as it can ensure that people remain as safe as possible until the danger is removed. However, when EORE is conducted in
18 These were based on observations such as community members hiding in the bush at night due to the presence of this group
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areas without clearance teams operating in the immediate vicinity, the community can become frustrated that items they report are not cleared immediately.19
Although Amee is a small community, it is less isolated; charcoal and building materials may be sold along the busy highway or brought to Juba for sale. MAG teams are able to buy personal items (using their own funds; not purchased by MAG for the project) in the larger villages or in Juba. Although this contributes to the local economy, the addition of MAG teams will not have a negative impact on the overall supply / demand for goods.
During the course of this grant period, the exact origin of information leading to EOD call outs was not recorded in a way that could easily be aggregated for reporting (although going forward MAG and UNMAS have made changes to reporting forms that will make this easier). Therefore, the following information applies broadly to MAG teams operations in South Sudan, not just the Dutch-funded team. In Terekeka county, the chief of Mundari Bura has reported a number of UXO on the basis of information given to him by community members after they had received EORE. In addition, teachers in schools have also reported UXO following information given to them by children who had attended EORE sessions.
OUTCOME 1
Baseline Proposal Final Target Results % achieved of % achieved of target proposal target final target Indicator # # # 1.1 Total number of direct Women 0 38,152 5,108 6,884 18% 115% beneficiaries Men 0 42,832 4,996 6,620 15% 123% Girls 0 19,750 8,283 42% 89% 15,111 Boys 0 22,090 8,638 38% 93% Total 122,824 25,33720 28,584 23% 87% 1.2 Total number of Women 0 6,540 3.230 2,540 39% 37% indirect beneficiaries Men 0 6,540 3,205 2,391 37% 35% Girls 0 10,860 5,762 3,115 29% 30% Boys 0 10,860 5,622 3,353 31% 33% Total 34,800 17,909 11,399 33% 101% % # % # % # % 1.3 Number of (%) direct Women 0 - - 75% 821 89% beneficiaries surveyed Men reporting feeling safer 0 - - 1,988 75% 717 88%
following land release and Girls 0 - - 75% 772 89% RE activities Boys 0 - - 75% 877 87% Total 0 - - 3,187 88%
19 This information comes from focus group discussions held around Terekeka town conducted by another MAG CL team (funded by a different donor). However, as the Dutch-funded CL team was also working in this area, MAG assumes the information received is also applicable to Dutch-funded activities. 20 The total number of direct beneficiaries target includes 122 CFP targeted for which a SADD breakdown was not included originally.
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1.4 Number of (%) direct Women 0 - - 75% 655 98% beneficiaries surveyed Men 0 - - 75% 585 98% 1,571 reporting increased Girls 0 - - 75% 446 97% knowledge of ERW/mines Boys 0 - - 75% 589 97% following RE activities Total 0 - - 2,275 97% 1.5 Number of (%) direct Women 0 - - 77% 648 97% beneficiaries surveyed Men 0 - - 77% 573 95% 1,571 demonstrating increased Girls 0 - - 77% 445 98% safe behavior towards the Boys 0 - - 77% 593 98% dangers of ERW/mines Total following RE activities 0 - - - 2,259 97%
Targets for percentages indicators remained constant throughout the project, however, the associated number of beneficiary indicators were updated to reflect beneficiary targets. MAG adopted the standardized beneficiary definitions during the course of the project, which had a significant impact on indirect clearance beneficiary targets and EORE beneficiary targets.
Outcomes for indicator one generally exceeded projections. Notably, in 2020, only one man did not show “increased safe behaviour”; this person had, at the pre-EORE stage already fully demonstrated an understanding of safe behaviour, and hence his knowledge could not be increased.
However, scores relating to “feeling safer” were lower in 2020 than in previous years. This is probably due to the location of the teams in a new and highly contaminated area. As there is still significant clearance remaining, in the area, many community members still have some concerns.
The original targets for Outcome 1, as well as the first workplan, included the number of indirect EORE beneficiaries reached. However, in line with the standardized beneficiary definitions (which were agreed between MAG, HALO, and NPA), which were developed in late 2016, MAG does not record indirect beneficiaries of EORE.
It is difficult to measure the impact of MAG’s activities on the risk of EO-related injury or death due to the fortunately low number of injuries and deaths reported in a given area. EORE activities have been conducted in South Sudan for a number of years, so at this stage in South Sudan’s mine action programme the focus is on continuing to educate people so that the messaging is reinforced and the number of these accidents remain low.
There was very notable improvement in terms of knowledge about EO dangers and understanding of safe behaviors do appear to increase following EORE, even when it has been received before. However, results from focus groups under another grant have shown that while people understand safe behaviors, those with economic need for engaging in unsafe behavior have continued to do so. Men, especially in the Amee Junction area, but in Tindilo as well, had previously been at risk when burning charcoal for sale, both because they needed to walk into the bush where there may not be paths and because having a fire on the ground can cause EO to detonate.
In order to ensure that women were reached with EORE, CL teams operating out of Terkeka Town conducted sessions near the market (these sessions also reached a large number of men). However,
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most people going to the market are adults and therefore during the period when working near the markets of Terekeka town the team underachieved slightly on the number of girls and boys reached. Teams also conducted EORE sessions with teachers21 and visited cattle camps. When operating in Terekeka county, it was difficult to conduct surveys with girls—these surveys needed to be conducted by women (all MAG CL teams are mixed gender), and girls are often socialized to be more reserved and less likely to be willing to take the survey.
Sample sizes for EORE surveys were approximately 8% of the total beneficiaries, nearly achieving the target of 10% sample size. Although CL teams attempted to implement a 10% survey size, this is difficult in the context of South Sudan, where it difficult to predict the exact number of people who will participate in the session at the time that the CL teams delivering pre-EORE surveys. MAG has found that the most effective way to sample EORE beneficiaries is to sample 2 beneficiaries for each community EORE session. With an average community session size of 25 beneficiaries, this sampling method will result in a sample of around 8%.
Further variations occurred in 2017, when CL teams followed MAG SOPs and surveyed 1 beneficiary per EORE session instead of 10% of EORE beneficiaries, reducing the sample size further. However, this was mitigated in August 2020 when, as part of COVID 19 mitigation measures, EORE was conducted on a house-to-house basis with a maximum of 6 participants per session, and MAG surveyed 1 beneficiary per household.
OUTCOME 2
% achieved of % achieved Proposal Final Baseline Results proposal of final target Target target target Indicator # # # # Women 430 1,431 600 140% 42% 2.1 Number of Men 430 1,295 575 134% 44% clearance/reduction Girls 430 2,113 723 168% 34% direct beneficiaries Boys 430 1908 785 183% 41% Total 1,720 4,839 2,683 156% 55% Women 600 7,157 2,540 423% 35% 2.2 Number of Men 600 6,475 2,391 399% 37% clearance/reduction Girls 600 10,565 3,115 519% 29% indirect Boys 600 9,542 3,353 559% 35% beneficiaries Total 2,400 33,739 11,399 475% 34% % # # # 2.3 Number of (%) Women 40% - 572 229 direct beneficiaries Men 40% - 518 193 surveyed reporting Girls 40% - 845 361
21 Not training of trainers for teachers, but EORE sessions with teachers as the beneficiaries
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improved Boys 40% - 791 357 livelihoods Total 40% - 2,728 1,142 2.4 Number of (%) Women 15% - 129 155 direct beneficiaries Men 15% - 111 137 surveyed reporting Girls 15% - 222 245 improved access to Boys 15% - 222 252 services and infrastructure Total 15% - 685 791 Agriculture 50% 80% 59% 55% Grazing 0% 10% 0 7% Community 0 10% 8% 0% 2.5 % of cleared and development reduced land used Housing 20% 0 17% 16% productively Infrastructure 20% 0 16% 1% Natural 0% 10% 0 16% resources Access 0% 0 0 0%
The land release beneficiary figures are slightly above the original target due to the change in locations following submission of the original proposal. The updated beneficiary targets were set prior to the beneficiaries in Amee beneficiaries being counted and MAG reached slightly more beneficiaries than anticipated, although no further beneficiaries were reached in 2020 as had been anticipated in the 2019 workplan.
In the year 2 (2018) work plan, the beneficiary target was significantly increased and MAG kept this target until the 2020 workplan. This update was made anticipating that the clearance team would eventually (in 2019 or 2020) relocate to a larger community such as Yei town. However, the security situation in Yei town deteriorate prior to any concrete planning for such a move to take place and in the 2020 work plan the beneficiary target was returned to a figure closer to that in the original proposal.
The reason or the frequent changes to the beneficiary targets is that setting accurate beneficiary targets can be difficult in South Sudan as there has not been a comprehensive census since 2008. Although humanitarian actors do have data at the county level, and sometimes the payam level, it is difficult to extrapolate the number of land release beneficiaries from the populations of these larger administrative districts. Furthermore, as many communities like Amee lost a large number of residents during the fighting in 2016, even recent population figures may be out of date. Finally, because NTSGs and SOPs require clearance of BAC hazardous areas to fade out (50m clearance from the last item found) it is difficult to determine how long clearance of a HA will take at the project outset, and therefore difficult to determine how many tasks/villages will be reached over the course of a long- term project.
In addition to the changes to beneficiary figures, the targets for land use by category have been adjusted during the course of the project. The SBDs also identified 6 categories of land use. Targets at the baseline stage only included four categories (agriculture, which including grazing and natural
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resources land), community development, infrastructure, and residential land use. Therefore, different overall results in the final report are largely a result of this change. The most notable difference are the lower than expected land use for housing and infrastructure; this is largely due to the change in the area of operations.
As seen in the table above, the % of beneficiaries reporting improved livelihoods was achieved or over- achieved when measured against the final target. However, the numbers of men, women, boys and girls reached was underachieved, because these targets were set based on the higher number of anticipated beneficiaries calculated in the 2018 workplan.
As noted above, differences in landuse were primarily due to changes in locations and different reporting metrics at different stages of the project. Use of land for livelihoods opportunities and access to natural resources was higher than anticipated. Only a small portion of land cleared is ultimately used for community services and infrastructure projects (such as the sinking of boreholes – which require very little cleared land), and often these are not reported as beneficiaries’ primary use of land. However, PCIA surveys have found that a large proportion of beneficiaries consider these to be an additional use of land. For example, in Amee there is only one borehole near the areas where MAG is clearing, so most beneficiaries will use cleared land to access this borehole.
It is important to note that natural resources are very important to the communities in South Sudan. In the Tindilo area charcoal and the fruits of Lulu trees (Shea trees) can be sold locally for income, usually as cooking oil. In the Amee junction area, charcoal and building materials (poles and grasses) are often sold for income.
Overall, the clearance outputs contribute to socio economic reconstruction as anticipated in the Theory of Change, although the exact land uses a means by which livelihoods are earned is slightly different than as anticipated at the proposal stage.
Although land is used productively to grow crops or raise animals, especially in Tindilo, crops are often consumed at home and little income is earned. More income may be earned from animals which may graze on cleared land, although in Tindilo cattle, despite being important elements of family wealth, are rarely sold for cash. Although the benefits to the community of using cleared land to safely grow crops and raise animals is clear, the context in South Sudan makes it difficult to quantify a value derived from cleared land and translate this into Euros.
In 2018, MAG made significant efforts to estimate the income generated from crops grown on released land. However, a number of problems were encountered. First, in areas such as Tindilo, the culture of the local community is based on livelihoods focused on cattle keeping. Cattle keeping cultures do also farm, however, most crops are grown on a subsistence basis. To earn additional income, families will utilize natural resources, such as lulu fruits and wood for charcoal. Even in communities focused on agriculture22 , MAG found that a lack of standardization in the unit sizes prevented precise accounting of income generated from agricultural production on cleared land.
22 For example, Lobonok, in Juba county, where MAG conducted an extensive PCIA aimed at measuring the value of agricultural products from cleared land
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Goods were often measured in non-standardized ways, such as buckets or sacks, and different families might choose different units for measuring similar goods.
However, findings from PCIAs do provide a snapshot of how value is earned from cleared land. In Ame, where the Dutch-funded clearance team worked, land is used to generate income. However, this income usually comes from natural resources, rather than agricultural production. A sack of charcoal sold locally usually fetches 2000 SSP (USD 4 at recent unofficial exchange rates), and each “heap” of charcoal made usually makes about 40 sacks of charcoal.
In Tindilo, MAG found that most income came from animals grazed on cleared land, rather than crops grown. Although crops were sold, usually these amounts were small, ranging from 300 SSP for groundnuts (approximately USD 1.50 using the unofficial exchange rate at the time the survey was conducted) to 12000 SSP (approximately USD 60) for “two big bags” of sorghum. On the other hand, one beneficiary of the 2018 Tindilo post-clearance impact assessment reporting earning 120,000 SSP for six cows sold (approximately USD 600 at the time of the assessment). Cows, however, are not frequently sold; although often described as a “walking bank account,” cattle is of utmost importance to the Mundari communities and they are rarely sold for cash. More frequently, goats are sold for cash, usually fetching about 5000 SSP (USD 25 at the time of the PCIA).
The way household data is collected (through HH-based surveys, rather than individual surveys) prevents detailed analysis of gender differences in regards to clearance outcomes, as all members of a household regardless of gender are recorded as having the same answer.
One interesting finding was that during the post clearance focus groups done in Sitto in 2018, the women’s focus groups indicated that some parts of the cleared task were not being used, while the Community leaders (mixed gender) and youth (men) focus groups indicated that all land was being used. This reflects differences in land use by gender, with men more likely to engage in activities using land for natural resources, such as hunting or burning wood for charcoal, gathering grasses and poles for building materials, or herding cattle, while women in this community spend more time around residential areas and cultivating crops.
Because of the small populations in the areas where MAG works, as well as the nature of life in the communities, MAG surveys as many households as they can reach while conducting a survey, rather than strictly sampling 10 percent of the beneficiaries. The sample size of surveyed land use beneficiaries was 1,390, which is 52% of the total direct beneficiaries.
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OUTPUTS.
Proposal Final % achieved of % achieved of Results target Target proposal target final target Outcome 1: Security and stability is enhanced, risk of death and injury to individuals and communities reduced Indicator # # # Women 5,267 5,659 6,284 119% 111% 1. Total number Men 4,990 5,361 6,045 134% 113% of EORE direct Girls 85% 79% 8,870 9,531 7,560 beneficiaries Boys 88% 85% Total 27,720 29,784 27,742 100% 93% 3. Total number of RE 1,152 1,326 1,253 109% 94% sessions delivered
During the period when the Dutch-funded CL team was working in Yei town and Magwi town, which are more densely populated and important regional towns, they were able to reach large numbers of beneficiaries. Although the number or EORE beneficiaries was well-balanced by age and gender (accounting for a larger population of girls and boys than adults) the achievement against the target for girls and boys is lower than for women and men. This is largely because of a number of children remaining in Uganda to attend school (especially from Magwi county) and the fact that the community liaison team also made an effort to target underserved men and women in settings where fewer children were present (such as markets).
Prior to 2020, the community liaison team had exceeded overall EORE targets to date; in 2019 CL team reached 176% of the EORE beneficiary targets, and had achieved nearly the total target for the project. Because the team was on track to meet the project target by the end of 2019, MAG increased the EORE targets for 2020.
However, in 2020, due to the COVID-19 stand down23, the team only operated for 4 months (out of an expected 8 months of CL activities); as a result, the number of EORE sessions was approximately 50% of the annual target for 2020. EORE beneficiaries are below 50% of the annual target, as during the month of August the team was conducting house hold sessions with a maximum of only 6 beneficiaries (instead of 25 beneficiaries in normal sessions), due to COVID 19 mitigation measures. As a result of this target increase, MAG underperformed against the revised EORE beneficiary targets, despite over achievement during most of the project.
23 The workplan for 2019 was submitted in early November 2019, prior to the emergence of COVID-19
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% achieved of Proposal Final % achieved of Results proposal target Target final target target Outcome 2: Enhanced resilience of vulnerable groups through Improved access to resources, livelihoods and socioeconomic reconstruction
Clearance 967,200 1,053,030 838,707 87% 79%
Reduction 67,500 0 0 0% n/a 1.Total high priority land released Cancellation 10,800 0 0 0% n/a
Total 1,045,500 1,053,030 838,707 80% 80%
2. % prioritized EOD Spot Tasks 100% 100% removed/destroyed 3. % newly identified hazardous area reports submitted to national mine 100% 100% action authority
During the inception phase, due to the temporary suspension of operations in South Sudan because of the eruption of conflict in the Equatorias in 2016, MAG had reduced the number of months and therefore outputs for the Dutch-funded MTT. However, during the course of operations in 2017, the team’s outputs were especially strong, and with good average outputs continuing for the most part until mid-2019 when the team relocated. Because of the high outputs in 2017, in the 2018 workplan MAG revised the output targets upwards to achieve the full amount of land release anticipated at the proposal stage. Unfortunately, other unexpected challenges, such as staffing changes, insecurity, unusually poor weather conditions, the need to relocate, and eventually the suspension of operations due to the COVID pandemic prevented the team from being able to achieve these revised targets.
As noted in the 2018 workplan, MAG did not expect to achieve significant amounts of cancellation or reduction due to the relocation of the teams. As the team was relocated to an area of operations where the nature of the contamination was different, targets for reduction and cancellation were added to the clearance (or overall land release) target. In addition, the methodology used in South Sudan for BAC—which was the primary activity of the Dutch-funded clearance team—is clear to fade out. Under this methodology, reduction or cancellation is not relevant.
In South Sudan, it is not the NMAA but rather UNMAS who manages IMSMA, and therefore HA reports would be submitted to UNMAS rather than the NMAA, therefore output indicator 2.3 should read “submitted to UNMAS/NMAA”.
As noted above, the clearance did not reach the target, with the most significant factors affecting performance related to months-long issues such as delayed start of the project resulting from the renewed violence in July 2016 and subsequent evacuation and suspension of operations in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, other issues such as insecurity (describe in detail in earlier
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sections), mineralized soil, and a more difficult terrain in Magwi county, hindered MAG’s ability to consistently achieve high enough outputs in order to “make-up” for the lost months described above.
Outcome 3: Local capacity to support mine action activities strengthened, ensuring lasting impact 1.Number of National Mine Action Strategy n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a on Ottawa compliance/residual risk management produced 2.Number of National implementing n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a partners trained and mentored 3.Number of local staff trained and deployed 2024 4.Community Focal Women 43 72 Points/teachers men 112 trained Total 144 156 155 108% 99%
The team was able to achieve 155% of the CFP training targets, however, they were not able to reach as many women as expected. This was largely because the community liaison team spent a considerable amount of time operating in Terekeka county, where teams reached larger numbers of cattle herders in relatively more remote communities. In these communities, cultural reasons mean that it is much more difficult to train women to be CFPs. However, when teams operated in towns, although there are still significant barriers to women taking up leadership roles such as becoming a CFP, the barriers are less than in cattle camps or other remote areas.
Reflection on cross-cutting issues
Gender During the project period, MAG held a basic demining course for women25, with the aim of increasing the number of women eligible for hire as deminers. As the Dutch-funded clearance team expanded soon after this training, women from the training were hired with Dutch funding. MAG continued to focus on increasing the number of women on its clearance teams, and by mid-2019 all of MAG’s clearance teams were mixed-gender.
Most of the improvements in the number of women working as deminers took place during the second half of 2018. As of November 2017, there were two women employed as deminers by MAG, one of whom was part of the Dutch-funded MTT. MAG also had a third women employed as a driver, which is a role that is also heavily male dominated. By October 2018, MAG had 13 women employed as deminers including 4 female deminers on the Dutch-funded MTT. By early July 2019, when MAG had 9 teams operating, there were 26 women employed as deminers, 1 woman employed as a medic, and 2 women
24 By the end of the project, MAG had a team size of 20 national staff. In addition, MAG has 31 national support staff who are partially funded with Dutch support. Although no targets were set in the workplan, the TOC mentions “44 personnel…including medical, logistics, and support staff”. 25 Funded by a different donor
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employed as drivers. MAG teams continue to be all mixed-gender, however, as the number of teams has reduced the number of women employed as deminers is also lower.
Because women are not expected to speak out publically but rather to defer to the men in many of the communities where MAG works, MAG’s community liaison activities aim to provide more opportunities for women’s views to be heard. For example, during community meetings, MAG teams look for women decision makers to include in focus group discussions, to ensure that women’s perspective is taken into account. In addition, it can often be difficult to have women nominated as Community Focal Points, especially in cattle camps (in the towns, women are more likely to be nominated). Community Liaison Officers are trained to encourage and gently push for more nominations of women CFPs. In more recent projects (beginning in 2019), MAG has also focused on setting specific targets for women CFPs or for the percentage of women CFPs, rather than setting ambitious targets for the overall number of trained CFPs. This serves two purposes, first, to make CFPs more “exclusive” and increase the visibility for women CFPs and second, to ensure that CL teams have the right incentives to focus on empowerment of women over meeting quantitative CFP targets.
During the course of the project, MAG revised its maternity leave policy, following recommendations provided by GMAP. In March 2017, the policy was updated, increasing the amount of paid time off from two months to three months, and allowing for a rest break of 1 hour per day for a period of one year following the birth of the child. In June 2017, the amount of time off increased from three to four months. In October 2018, the policy was updated to align with the new legislation regarding maternity leave. The labour law requires 90 days of maternity leave with full pay as well as 45 days of working half day. The policy also requires a number provisions to facilitate breast feeding, however, and therefore MAG had had to adapt its policy to meet these requirements. MAG’s current policy, adopted in October 2018, allows employees to begin their maternity leave 28 days prior to the due date and 90 calendar days of time off following the birth. For the next 45 days, the employee will return to work for a half day of light duties—for deminers, this will take place in the Juba HQ. Following this period, for a period of 135 calendar days (until the child is 9 months old) the employee will be entitled to a shortened work day as well as 2 additional paid 30 minute breaks, for the purpose of nursing the child. Field based staff will continue to work in the Juba HQ during this period.
Conflict Sensitivity Prior to deployment to a new area, MAG conducts liaison with the South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF), the Governor’s office, and the county commissioner. The security manager and operations staff also conduct a security assessment, during which they will identify and speak with local leaders to learn about the conflict dynamics (amongst other security-related concerns). Upon deployment to a new area, community liaison teams conduct focus group discussions with community leaders, women, and youth to better understand the blockages faced by the community and their priorities for clearance and information about expected land use and beneficiaries. During this process they also ask about land ownership and how the community feels about the likelihood of conflict. Much of the land cleared by the Dutch team is for shared use, such as natural resources, access, and infrastructure, which is not very likely to result in conflict.
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Innovation Vegetation clearance prior to clearance is very time consuming in the Equatoria’s region of South Sudan where dense vegetation grows quickly, especially during the rainy season. As a result, trained deminers often need to spend 4-5 times more time on vegetation clearance that searching for sub-munitions with large loop detectors. Although the Dutch-funded clearance team is primarily a manual team, MAG has been able to conduct mechanical ground preparation using Bozena 4s that would otherwise have been idle when not in use by other MAG teams. Because this is an existing and in-use MAG asset, only fuel costs needed to be covered with Dutch funding. MAG has recently found that by using a mulcher attachment for vegetation clearance on these machines rather than a flail attachment as previously, the speed of vegetation clearance can be significantly increased, meaning that the teams can focus on manually clearing the UXO, rather than on ground preparation, increasing outputs.
Sustainability Although MAG is no longer working in Tindilo, another operator has been tasked to continue clearance once the area is accessible. Follow-up early in 2020 showed that development, such as new buildings, are being built on cleared land in the town-centre area. Recently, there has been fighting amongst the communities in Terekeka county, however, if access allows, MAG hopes to conduct a follow up visit to Tindilo to measure if there has been sustained progress in the years following our activities.
Collaboration/coordination MAG enjoys good relations with the NMAA and UNMAS in South Sudan. MAG regularly meets with the NMAA, including participation in monthly operations and EORE working group meetings, as well as ad hoc bilateral meetings. MAG also participates in monthly operations meetings with UNMAS. Community Liaison teams and Technical Field Managers meet with local authorities in their areas of operations as needed. Community liaison teams also meet with schools, churches and civil society groups if they are present in the community to ensure that all members of the community are reached with EORE and a wide spectrum of community members have the opportunity to provide information to the teams
Collaboration with NL Embassy. During the project period, the Country Director held regular meeting and project updates with Ms. Noeke Ruiter, First Secretary Political Affairs and Rule of Law, shared information and updates for the Mine Awareness campaign to ensure visibility of the Dutch MoFA, and took part in meetings on the projects in South Sudan funded by the Dutch Government during the visit of staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hague.
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Risk analysis review: During the period of operations, the situation in Tindilo remained dynamic. The presence of an armed group was a particularly difficult risk to assess, leading to precautions such as having the team remain at camp on a number of occasions in late 2018 and early 2019. Following an assessment by the security manager and discussions with local leaders, MAG determined that the group did not pose a direct threat. Furthermore, the security situation along the direct road connecting Terekeka and Tindilo deteriorated significantly in mid-2018, including the ambush and robbery of a MAG vehicle (which resulted in the loss of personal belongs and injury) and a WFP convoy one week later. As a result of these incidents, MAG reduced movements to a minimum until an alternative route was identified and assessed. Cattle raiding and intercommunal violence have long been complex problems throughout South Sudan. Violence between cattle keepers outside of Terekeka town, although not directly affecting MAG, led to the community liaison team being asked to remain in camp for a number of days. Throughout most of the project period, the political situation improved slowly. The Revitalized peace agreement (R-ARCSS) was signed in 2018, but the implementation of the agreement moved slowly. Although progress was made, especially in 2020 when the unity government was formed and governors were appointed, concerns about the cantonment process and the lack of resources to pay and feed soldiers in the cantonment sites have mitigated optimism in the process.
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General reflection on Adaptive Programming & MEL
Due to the nature of context in which MAG operated under MACM 2016-2020, a variety of unforeseen challenges were faced during the course of the project. These highlighted the importance of employing an operational flexible approach and to find creative solutions to methodological, operational and logistical challenges to ensure successful outcomes and to meet the changing priorities in the sector.
Operational challenges and innovation.
The flexibility of the Government of the Netherlands permitted MAG to temporarily to change operational areas, which has been key to continue implementation of activities in Iraq after the Kurdish referendum and the the overnight change in control of the disputed areas. Similarly, the crisis of 2016 in South Sudan and following challenges in terms of security and weather conditions led to a revision of the workplan. Operational flexibility was key to allow the Dutch-funded teams to deploy in safer/more accessible areas while continuing to deliver life-saving activities in-country. Teams structures were revised both in Lebanon South Sudan improving efficiency. The Multi task team deployed under this project in South Sudan was one of MAG’s smaller MTTs. MAG has found that a team size of 10 deminers is ideal, and has begun standardizing team size at 10 deminers since late 2019. At the project outset, the Dutch-funded team only had 4 deminers. This was later increased to 8 deminers, which was more in line with the typical size of an average MTT at the time of the increase. In Lebanon Field Operations Managers are now being tasked for specific area and clearance type to allow them to have the maximum time spent on ground, rather than time spent travelling to tasks in different areas. The teams have also been adapting other operational activities and practices in response to changing context and needs. For example, in DRC over the course of the project it became clear that the scale of contamination noted in the 2014 National Landmine Contamination Survey (which MAG’s workplan was based on) had been misreported. To help identify any further hazardous areas, including those not registered on the 2014 National Landmine Contamination Survey, radio broadcasts were scheduled in both North and South Ubangi during the project period. The global COVID-19 pandemic represented a major challenge over the course of 2020 and had a significant impact in fragile contexts such as Iraq and South Sudan, where operations had to be suspended for almost 5 months. To address this challenge, MAG responded positively to the pandemic, continuing to deliver outputs where possible, while ensuring our duty of care towards staff and communities we work in. COVID-19 also prompted MAG to adapt ways of working to the new contexts: one example being investing in remote delivery of EORE via digital means, a component that our Lebanon programme included under the new proposal. Social media campaigns will reach communities affected by EO that are inaccessible to MAG COTs teams due to COVID-19 or other restrictions. The pandemic also highlighted the need to invest even more on risk management resources. To address this need, a new risk management framework is being developed with the aim of strengthen governance and management practices, compliance, decision-making, priority setting and to better respond to uncertainty within the organization.
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Positive engagement with key stakeholders in–country confirmed to be paramount to improve procedures and national standards which will remain in place also for future funding. In Lebanon, the positive and constructive relationship with LMAC allowed MAG to review tasking procedures for greater efficiency 26. In addition, between 2019 and 2020 MAG carried out trials in preparation for the clearance of anti-Tank (AT) mines on the Blue Line, Lebanon, under the supervision of RMAC. Following the trial, MAG created SOPs for the AT mines clearance procedure, which was approved by the national authorities and allowed teams to be deployed in AT tasks from November 2020.
Monitoring, evaluation and learning.
Methodological approaches improved and changed during the course of the grant to measure the benefits of mine action more actively and effectively for the benefit of operators, donors, national authorities and beneficiaries. One example is the adoption in November 2016 of the first edition of the standardising beneficiary definitions, which laid the foundation for standardised, realistic and transparent beneficiaries reporting. Other examples are the REPP guidance reflecting MAG best practices and methodologies for gauging the effectiveness of EORE interventions in increasing EORE knowledge and promoting safer behaviours in our beneficiary populations. Limitations to outcome monitoring and reporting during the project implementation highlighted the need to invest into an information management system to allow electronic disaggregated data collection at field level, reducing the amount of data entry and supporting better analysis. During the project period MAG invested in its internal IM capacity and started the roll out of Survey 123 in all Dutch – funded programs. Future programming will therefore benefit from a more efficient and user friendly system which will facilitate the data analysis at multiple levels. To comment more specifically on reporting requirements under MACM 2016-2020, it must be noted that changes to the reporting templates made it difficult to understand what parameters the Ministry expected MAG to reporting against. Furthermore, the introduction of the Standardized Beneficiary Definitions (SBDs) after the proposal stage also led to some discrepancies among land use categories and the total beneficiary targets not matching the SBDs. For example, in SBD version 1, released in late 2016, listeners of EORE radio messaging were not considered direct EORE beneficiaries and the reporting of indirect EORE beneficiaries was discouraged, therefore MAG didn’t reach or report against associated targets presented at the proposal stage.
At HQ level it has been noted that changes to the reporting templates and the way the result framework was structured at the beginning of the grant made it difficult to aggregate results from different programmes. As some of the targets were not disaggregated at the proposal and workplan stage, it is not possible to measure achievements for each target group against targets. In future funding, MAG will disaggregate all targets by agreed categories to facilitate the analysis of the results achieved.
26 Previously, MAG was being given one task upon the completion of another task which limited the efficiency of deployment of the team members. During the second reporting period, LMAC agreed to give MAG more tasks in one go so that the programme could plan for the most effective use of resources and personnel.
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Assumptions. Although assumptions were not clearly stated in MAG TOC, two key assumptions can be identified in the project proposal text: 1. Clearance, RE and stockpile destruction will reduce the risks to personal security. 2. Clearance, RE and stockpile destruction will promote socioeconomic development 3. MAG’s intervention will strengthen local capacity. These are high level assumptions which are strictly related to the delivery of the expected outcomes as outlined in the Theory of Change and the overall contribution to higher level goals and impact. Assumptions were therefore presented not as conditions necessary for change to occur but as a statement of the change that MAG sought to pursue. Given the nature of the assumptions included in the original proposal, MAG feels that considerations of this type go beyond the scope of the present report, but are the object of the external evaluation attached.
Use of joint outcome indicators.
With increasing importance being placed on the outcomes rather than outputs of mine action activities, there is a growing sector interest to standardize definitions and approaches. Donor driven initiatives and coordination are key for the success of this harmonization, which, if framed as a sector wide effort involving different type of stakeholders (and not a top-down process from donors to agencies), ideally would lead to build the basis to collect better evidences on the wider impact of mine action at individual, community and institutional level. It is also important to note that, to be effective, harmonization and standardization will need to imply a certain level of flexibility at methodological level to adjust and remain relevant to the variety of contexts in which HMA actor operate. In light of the above, MAG considers the initiatives the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affair coordinated between 2019 and 2020 both with operators and with other donors and stakeholders a great opportunity for the whole sector to place greater emphasis on the impact of mine activation on vulnerable communities.
Reflection on the NL MFA Evaluation.
The recommendations around indicators and their consistent use between operators were useful and MAG welcomes the focus that the Ministry has taken on addressing this in the inception phase of the new projects. This is in line with ongoing initiatives by MAG and other operators (such as the work on SBD outline above) and has the potential to create greater consistency with other donors and across the sector. Some aspects of the evaluation that considered capacity development overlooked the role that INGO operators can play, particularly given the confidence established with national actors in countries of operation and the advantages offered by programme infrastructure and expertise. Over the four year project, MAG has come to recognise the need and opportunity to incorporate systematic capacity development alongside survey, clearance and EORE, which must be fully coordinated by other actors
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such as GICHD and UN agencies. As a result MAG has include a regional Capacity Development Advisor in the Middle East in the design of the new project, which is a positive step and we thank the Ministry for allowing its inclusion. While the evaluation noted that there were thematic oversights in the MACM programme, e.g. “conceptual gaps in the approach to MRE”. In this example, the evaluation noted the ongoing revision to the IMAS on MRE but that “the current MACM structure does not allow funds to be allocated to such global challenges”. Given that the Dutch is a significant donor to GICHD outside of the funds tendered through MACM, this should be the primary mechanism through which such issues are addressed. MAG included this in our feedback on the evaluation and we welcome the efforts already being made to bring together the capacity development and operational programmes under the new MACM. We hope to see more joint planning between the operators and GICHD in particular to achieve greater synergies, and overall MAG is glad to see the more collaborative, structured and systematic approach that has been established. MAG also welcomes the consistent involvement of Embassies, and we thank our contact points in the Dutch embassies in our MACM programme countries for their ongoing support and positive engagement. The evaluation notes challenges in, for example, Lebanon, around the prioritization process; we encourage all donors, including the Dutch Ministry, to work proactively through Embassies to engage with national authorities on such issues in cooperation with operators. Structures such as country coalitions have potential value to focus on particular areas of support and add diplomatic weight where needed to bring about change.
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Conclusion
Netherlands funding has provided lifesaving activities throughout 2016-2020 in five fragile and conflict affected countries, positively impacting and providing protection for over 370,000 people. Despite the inevitable multiple challenges encountered over the grant period, the project’s activities contributed to the outcomes and impacts broadly as expected. Clearance activities have released land contaminated with explosive ordnance, to be used safely by communities, especially for agriculture, grazing, and natural resources, potentially increasing livelihood opportunities for vulnerable conflict- affected beneficiaries. Communities are more aware of the risks of explosive ordnance, and understand the behaviours necessary to remain safe. Local capacity has been strengthen both at individual/organisational and institutional level through secondment of NMAA staff, training and technical advisory support.
The programme structures allowed the flexibility necessary to tailor HMA interventions to changing circumstance and needs, essential in conflict and post conflict environments and in longer-term grants. A flexible approach has also been adopted to results target setting, which is confirmed year by year according to changing circumstances and capacities in-country. Going forward, MAG would welcome more frequent and structured discussions with the Ministry and other partners to exchange and analyse information on current progress of the project, discuss common challenges and lesson learned. Additionally, the multi country and multi year programme structure, including support to cross-cutting areas, made a significant contribution to MAG at the policy level as well as operationally, by providing the opportunity to learn from programming over time, to inform how MAG engages with humanitarian policy and international frameworks such as the APMBC and CCM. During the course of the project, the issue of classification of improvised contamination emerged as a key issue, driven by the extensive use of IEDs and landmines of an improvised nature in areas occupied by Da’esh. The scale of the problem (exacerbated by legacy and new conventional contamination) resulted in a huge influx of new clearance capacity as well as a new capacity development role for UNMAS in Iraq. The classification of all improvised contamination as “IED” became a controversial issue in the mine action sector. MAG engaged extensively on this issue, emphasising the humanitarian imperative to treat victim-activated devices as landmines, under the scope of the APMBC. This led to extensive advocacy and debate within the APMBC and CCW APII forums, as well as at UNGA Fourth Committee and in other discussions at UN HQ. This was a particularly relevant issue under MACM as three key MACM countries (Iraq and NE Lebanon) were affected by improvised contamination. MAG engaged extensively with the Netherlands on this issue and received essential support and input from the New York and Geneva Missions as well as from The Hague. MAG and the Netherlands remained closely aligned and in frequent communication on this issue and others. This partnership at the policy level is greatly valued my MAG and we hope to see this depth and strength of cooperation continue under the new project. The Fourth Review Conference of the APMBC in late 2019, as well as the Second Review Conference of the CCM shortly after the end of the four year project, provided an important point of focus for the sector to reflect on achievements, challenges and the way forward. MAG’s engagement with the review conferences, and other Meetings of States Parties and intersessional meetings during the project, were
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informed significantly by MAG’s work under the MACM. Inevitably, the ambition for affected states to reach completion by 2025 was a key focus, and MAG played in a leading role in debate and advocacy on this issue. The challenges around completion in DRC and the dichotomy between completion and humanitarian impact in South Sudan were significant in informing MAG’s position, and remain centrally relevant as we continue to engage on this complex issue. As President of 4RC, Norway identified a number of key focus themes and encouraged implementers to work together to propose joint positions in negotiation of the Oslo Action Plan. MAG co-chaired both the Gender Working Group and EORE Advisory Group, which put forward concrete proposals, many of which were incorporated into the OAP, such as the establishment of gender focal points on APMBC sub-committees. Alongside initiatives such as the SBD, these groups reflect an increasingly collaborative tone in the mine action sector, which MAG entirely welcomes. This has been engendered partly as a result of equitable and transparent engagement by the Netherlands and other key donors who have encouraged transparency and cooperation over (unhealthy) competition. Both the gender and EORE groups have continued to work together towards 2RC and beyond. Support under MACM has been significant in enabling MAG to engage materially on these issues, as they have both been informed directly by our programme activities, including gender as a cross-cutting issue and our operations in the Middle East, where the changing nature and scale of the contamination and widespread displacement in the Middle East necessitated a greater focus on operators’ approach to EORE. MAG is also engaged on discussions around conflict sensitivity and welcomes the increased focus on this under the new MACM. While some stakeholders felt that conflict sensitivity should be included in the OAP, MAG agreed with the Delegation from the Netherlands that this needs to be primarily focused on as a programming issue, rather than as a top-down, policy-led approach.
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