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Akbar Novruz

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Speaking to AzerNEWS on the sidelines of the 4th International Mine Action Conference in Baku, Mark Connelly, Chief of the Mine Action Programme in Cyprus at the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), highlighted the importance of mine risk education in emergency situations and said funding remains a major challenge for mine action programmes worldwide.

Asked about potential communication challenges with civilians in emergency situations and how the UN works to ensure people are aware of mine and explosive ordnance risks, Connelly said risk education is an essential component of early mine action responses.

“Because we arrive in an emergency situation early on in the situation, we have been dealing with that in many, many programs in many countries. And so we're very aware that risk education is a very vital part early on in the situation,” he said.

According to Connelly, UNMAS invests significant effort in developing risk education materials and tailoring them to different groups within affected communities.

“We spend a lot of time developing risk education material, ensuring that we're able to target the many audiences that we may find,” he said.

Connelly also pointed to an institutional challenge facing mine action programmes in countries affected by emergencies, noting that there is not always a government body responsible for mine clearance.

“The issues that we have predominantly are that often many of the countries that we work in, there isn't necessarily a government or a department that is in charge of mine clearance. And so the UN takes on that de facto role,” he said.

In such circumstances, he explained, the UN must identify the relevant authorities and stakeholders to establish priorities and determine where clearance operations should be concentrated.

“And so then we have to try and work out who is going to be the agencies, the people that we need to talk to in order to work out what the priorities are and where the clearance needs to focus,” Connelly added.

Asked what form of international support would make the greatest difference to mine action at present - funding, equipment, expertise or technology - Connelly said financing is a challenge across the sector.

“The funding is an issue in every country at the moment. I mean, that is a global issue because there are many, many issues going on globally around the world,” he said.

At the same time, Connelly stressed that financial support is not the only challenge, pointing to the technical demands and time required to train personnel capable of conducting mine clearance safely.

“In addition to that, as you say, we have technical issues of the time it takes to train people up to conduct clearance. So we have many issues going on around the world,” he concluded.