Tailoring Explosive Ordnance Risk Education: How MAG Addresses Gender/Cultural Sensitivities and Local Risk-Taking Behavior

The relevance of risk education is widely acknowledged as reflected in the Oslo Action Plan (OAP) with its distinct chapter on ‘Mine risk education and reduction’ and five explicit actions. Good risk education must be tailored. MAG’s experience delivering explosive ordnance risk education (EORE) in four-teen countries confirms the relevance of tailoring EORE to the local reality: to people’s risk taking behaviors, to the actual explosive ordnance (EO) threat, to seasonality, availability of people for risk education sessions, and approaches that re-spect gender and diversity and take conflict sensitivity into account

Life is More Than an Artificial Leg: The Luena/Angola Experience

Medico International is a German non-governmental organization (NGO) that specializes in socio-medical care and advocacy from the onset of an emergency throughout the rehabilitation and reintegration process

MRE Certification Courses in Mali, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan

UNICEF developed a mine risk education (MRE) certification course to regulate the accreditation of MRE educators. The certification courses have had varied success in Mali, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan

Landmine and UXO Safety: The “Duty of Care”

A long wheelbase Landcruiser can seat 13 people: five in the front and eight in the rear. Usually those sitting in the rear cannot use seat belts because there are none, and those in front often choose not to wear them. Besides, at the end of the world, as the Portuguese called the southeastern corner of Angola, it is very unlikely you will meet another car anyway, so why wear seat belts

Measuring Behavior Change Resulting from EORE and the Need for Complementary Risk Reduction Activities

Risk education (RE) in mine action has been around since 1992.[i] However, explosive ordnance risk education (EORE)[ii] operators are still struggling to measure how and whether EORE has resulted in positive behavior change.[iii] Of course, various monitoring and evaluation (M&E) methods have been pursued in the past, predominantly the use of knowledge, attitude, practice, and beliefs (KAPB) surveys; simpler pre-/post-EORE session surveys; the use of proxy indicators such as number of explosive ordnance (EO) accidents or victims; and number of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) callouts from the community. However, these methods come with some limitations in accurately capturing behavior change. For example, survey questions linked to behavior would normally be prefaced as “what would you do if…” However, this self-reporting of behavior does not necessarily capture actual behaviors; moreover, responses may be biased toward giving the “correct answer” in order to please the organization conducting the survey. Further, research has evaluated the limits of EORE in the context of ongoing conflict, high levels of poverty, and/or insufficient clearance/ordnance disposal capacity. These circumstances lead to a lack of choices for persons living in or near an EO-contaminated environment to adopt safer behavior

Chronische Flucht - chronische Bildungsmisere. Eindrückliches aus Angola

"Der Autor beschreibt die Konzeptionen und Schwerpunkte der Bildungsarbeit von medico international in Angola." Dabei stehen die physische und psycho-soziale Betreuung und Integration der Landminenopfer und die Alphabetisierung im Vordergrund. (DIPF/Orig./wi