Managing Landmine Casualty Data: Designing and Developing the Data Structures and Models Necessary to Track and Manage Landmine Casualty Data

The Mine Action Information Center (MAIC) at James Madison University, through a grant from the US Department of State via RONCO Consulting Corporation, implemented this project to develop a framework for the systematic collection and management of landmine casualty data. This report focuses on Phase II of the project, with Phase I already completed and Phase III to build on the results of Phase II. The project was premised on the lack of an adequate system for collecting and managing landmine casualty data on a global basis. Data on landmine and UXO casualties is being collected in a systematic manner in some countries, but worldwide, it is not being collected in a comprehensive or consistent manner that allows it to be compared cross-nationally and aggregated globally. The lack of an adequate system hampers the ability of mine action decision makers to effectively design and implement programs and allocate scarce resources. The Casualty Database Project has two principal goals: 1. To assess existing methods of landmine and UXO casualty data collection, analysis and dissemination 2. To formulate courses of action for the systematic and accurate collection and processing of casualty-related data. Related to these goals are some core questions that the project seeks to answer: 1. Who is collecting casualty data? 2. What information about landmine casualties do the different systems collect? 3. How effectively and reliably is it being collected? 4. For what purposes is it being collected? 5. How can we improve the collection of casualty data globally

Decision Tools Manual Humanitarian Mine Action Projects

In 2003, the United States Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs/Weapons Removal and Abatement, (PM/WRA) tasked the James Madison University Mine Action Information Center (MAIC) with producing a cost-benefit analysis of two demining programs to be used to develop a model to analyze the quantitative impacts, expected results, and suggested prioritization of mine clearance activities. Prioritization was to be accomplished within the context of socio-economic development programs. Lessons learned from UN guidance, earlier studies, experts in the mine action community, and field studies influenced the development of the decision tool for prioritization of humanitarian mine action projects. The MAIC team reviewed different methods of conducting cost-benefit analysis, including their usefulness and disadvantages, prior to field studies in Thailand and Ethiopia. These countries provided insight and first hand validation of the selection of parameters for a cost-benefit analysis model that would prioritize humanitarian mine action projects. Due to the difficulty in obtaining quantitative data, particularly for socio-economic factors, several multi-criteria approaches were also examined and the analytic hierarchy process was chosen for consideration. The report, “Decision Tools for Selection of Humanitarian Mine Action Projects,” (Knickrehm and Stewart 2004) was written in tandem with this manual and describes the background material and field study notes for the development of these models

Landmine Casualty Data: Best Practices Guidebook

This Landmine Casualty Data: Best Practices Guidebook reports on advances being made in casualty data collection and management and offers lessons learned that countries can reflect upon as they undertake the challenging task of building mine/ ERW victim information systems that meet their needs for data to use in planning and implementing their comprehensive mine action programs, including mine clearance, mine risk education and victim assistance. While the Guidebook is premised on the advances being made in some countries, much more progress is needed before effective landmine/ERW victim information systems will be operating in all mine-affected countries. It is important to share the successes and benefit from the lessons learned

How Students and Educators Can Get Involved in Mine Action

Students have a number of available options for getting involved in helping the global mine action community. Below are some examples of programs in which students can participate

Enhancement of Casualty Data Collection & Management

The MAIC built upon research conducted in earlier phases of the project (2001-2002) to investigate the following unresolved questions regarding the development of an effective landmine casualty data system. 1. What kind of data about landmine victims is being collected and is it adequate to the needs of victim assistance service providers? 2. If it is not adequate, what additional data should be collected and how should it be managed? 3. What can be done to improve the dissemination of landmine casualty data? These questions were addressed by investigating developments in landmine casualty data collection and management since 2002 and adding them to the information about existing data collection and management efforts reported on in the previous phases of the project. Next, following up on a recommendation made at a workshop conducted in an earlier phase of the project, a survey was conducted to evaluate the adequacy and appropriateness of the data fields contained in IMSMA’s standard mine accident victim data entry form. Recognizing that the Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) collects data on landmine victims that is stored in a separate component of IMSMA (its “Impact Survey” functionality), the study also examined the LIS victim data fields and compared them to the IMSMA “victim” data fields. Based on the outcome of this three-pronged research project, nine specific recommendations were made for enhancing the collection and management of landmine casualty data. Below are the major recommendations presented in summary form. The full set of recommendations and explanations are presented in part VI of the report (on pp. 26-27)

Global Education and Training Initiatives Directory (GETI)

The Global Education and Training Initiatives Directory has been created through the generous funding of the U.S. Department of State, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (PM/WRA). The Global Education and Training Initiatives Directory represents a first effort to document the collective training and education opportunities that span a range of technical activities within mine action, explosive ordnance disposal and small arms/light weapons control and destruction. Efforts to counter the threats of landmines, unexploded ordnance and small arms/light weapons have traditionally been treated as separate entities; however, this directory is an effort to bring them together. Training and education opportunities included in the GETI Directory were volunteered by organizations that identified their courses as being associated with some aspect of the following activities: • Landmine or explosive ordnance detection, clearance, handling, storage, destruction or disposal • Small arms/light weapons control, storage, destruction or mitigation • Weapons prevention, security or abatement • Other training courses related to management of mines, ERW or SA/LW The goal of the GETI Directory is to provide information on technical training and education within these different groups, and also to encourage synergy between mine action, explosive ordnance disposal and SA/LW control as information is available about training and education options among the oft-similar, but typically separated, efforts related to mines, UXO and SA/LW. It is hoped that opportunities for collaboration, regional cooperation, and exchange of ideas and training may be furthered in the future between these entities. This Directory is one effort to encourage communication and awareness between groups working toward abatement of explosive threats

The Role of Civil Affairs in Mine Action

This study, “The Role of Civil Affairs in Mine Action,” is not intended to be read from cover to cover by most users. It has been researched and written with three target audiences in mind: 1) the Mine Action official who would like to learn more about the application of Civil Affairs capabilities to humanitarian demining activities, 2) the Civil Affairs officer who would like to learn more about challenges and actions within the realm of humanitarian demining operations, and 3) US military officials who have a responsibility for, or an interest in, the proper unit design and uses of CA forces. For someone who is interested in determining the capabilities and constraints of the Department of Defense and its Civil Affairs forces, Sections III, IV and V will provide just such a tutorial. For those CA soldiers interested in understanding more about the threat of latent landmines and what that means to the US in terms of national security policy and support actions, Sections I, and II will give the necessary background. Sections VI and VII are analytical studies, which evaluate both the pragmatic and conceptual methods of applying CA capabilities to the demining mission. These sections should help a force designer or planner to understand the real requirements and environment in which CA elements function

Mozambique Mine Awareness Education Module

Mine Awareness Education Module - Mozambique is based on information acquired through a variety of expert sources. The document incorporates information gathered through • a review of ecological theories, • an extensive review of existing humanitarian demining mine awareness and prevention programs, • a review of effective strategies of community-change efforts, • and interviews with persons conducting mine awareness programs in Mozambique and other sub-Sahara countries. In addition, interviews and briefings were conducted with personnel from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict, US. Army Special Operations Command, 4th Psychological Operations Group and Special Operations Command, Europe (SOCEUR), U.S. Embassy - Mozambique, National Demining Commission of Mozambique, and Handicap International. Using multiple data sources and adopting an ecological perspective of mine awareness programming will help ensure that the module will provide theoretically grounded, comprehensive, and relevant information for the reader

Scoping Study of the Effects of Aging on Landmines

During the past year, the Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University has partnered with a British EOD consultancy company, C King Associates Ltd, to conduct a preliminary study into the effects of aging on landmines. This project entailed examination and disassembly of several types of anti-personnel mines, a literature review of relevant material and analysis of the initial findings

Colombia Humanitarian Demining Planning Workshop Executive Summary

From 9 to 12 June 2009, representatives of the Colombian government’s humanitarian mine action office and the Humanitarian Demining Department of the Colombian military met to devise a way forward in planning for the expansion and enhancement of the country’s program to eradicate landmines from the national territory. The Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University facilitated the Colombia Humanitarian Demining Planning Workshop (Taller de Planificación del Desminado Humanitario en Colombia) in Bogotá, Colombia. The workshop was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, and was attended by representatives from the U.S. and Colombian governments, international organizations, and key stakeholders in Colombia’s work against landmines. More than 40 participants worked together to draft a Plan of Action for Colombian humanitarian demining activities. They will use the plan as a guiding document for developing future mine-action activities. The plan emphasized integration and cooperation among military forces, national authorities, and international partners. The workshop opened with speeches from Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón and Andrés Dávila, director of the Programa Presidencial de Acción Integral contra las Minas Antipersonal (PPAICMA, the Presidential Program for Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Landmines). Officials from PPAICMA and the Humanitarian Demining Department of the Armed Forces of Colombia then described for the group the current status of the country’s humanitarian mine clearance program and its planned expansion. Presentations by international counterparts from the Organization of American States, Jordan’s National Committee for Demining and Rehabilitation, Mines Advisory Group, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Southern Command provided additional information and lessons learned from other mine-affected countries that were considered potentially useful in the Colombian context