Norwegian People’s Aid believes that to deliver results in mine action programs, it must empower and support national governments to take ownership of the contamination problem. Successful capacity-building efforts require support and buy-in from national authorities and mutual respect between parties involved

Finson, Vanessa

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Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction Volume 18 Issue 3 The Journal of ERW and Mine Action Article 7 November 2014 Capacity Building: Lessons Learned Vanessa Finson Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal  Part of the Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Commons Recommended Citation Finson, Vanessa (2014) "Capacity Building: Lessons Learned," The Journal of ERW and Mine Action : Vol. 18 : Iss. 3 , Article 7. Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol18/iss3/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction by an authorized editor of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact dc_admin@jmu.edu. 26 feature | the journal of ERW and mine action | fall 2014 | 18.3Capacity Building: Lessons LearnedNorwegian People’s Aid believes that to deliver results in mine action programs, it must empower and support national governments to take ownership of the contamination problem. Successful ca-pacity-building efforts require support and buy-in from national authorities and mutual respect be-tween parties involved.by Vanessa Finson [ Norwegian People’s Aid ]Since 1992, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) has imple-mented mine action programs in more than 40 states and territories globally. Over the last decade, NPA has increasingly been involved in capacity-building efforts of na-tional authorities and implements 15 formalized capacity- building projects in addition to large-scale operational (sur-vey and clearance) efforts worldwide.Despite significant progress in the wider mine action sec-tor, including a substantial reduction in landmine victims and millions of square meters of land released for safe use, full implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention or APMBC) obligations, in particular Article 5, remains a challenge for most States Parties.1NPA believes the ultimate responsibility for mine action lies with national governments, and that only by empower-ing and supporting national governments to take ownership of their contamination can the problem be effectively and efficiently resolved. National ownership, in turn, requires the national authority’s buy-in and financial support, a strong focus on efficient land release in operations, and suf-ficient and relevant information management and reporting structures. Equally and just as important, it requires useful and relevant capacity building of national authorities’ man-agement and staff.The Importance of AgreementThe mine action industry’s tradition of establishing, fund-ing and supporting national mine action centers (NMAC) has proven to be of questionable value and in many cases counter- productive to the end result. In NPA’s experience, the most important question to ask when looking at supporting nation-al mine action structures is the anticipated size of the prob-lem, most relevantly measured as square meters of suspected Female NPA deminer in South Sudan.Photo courtesy of Werner Anderson.1Finson: Capacity Building: Lessons LearnedPublished by JMU Scholarly Commons, 20142718.3 | fall 2014 | the journal of ERW and mine action | featureor confirmed contamination. When contamination is limited, an NMAC is unnecessary and long-term capacity-building programs have proven neither needed nor desirable, which has been NPA’s experience from several countries. For exam-ple, in Guinea-Bissau and Zambia, two countries with only limited contamination, focused efforts and limited capaci-ty-building support on selected subjects such as information management was key to success and eventual declaration of compliance with convention obligations.In Malawi, NPA provided very limited implementation and database management support to national authorities through capacity-building efforts. Database management is critical to the good management and understanding of mine action, and it proved crucial to the ultimately success-ful completion of Malawi’s Article 5 obligations. Moreover, in the case of Malawi, NPA introduced and operationalized the concept of combined non-technical and technical sur-vey (though limited), which quickly populated the database and was vital to the national authorities’ understanding of Malawi’s contamination.Different Needs for Different CountriesNPA believes that scaling capacity-building activities ac-cording to size of the problem is the only effective and effi-cient way to support a country in dealing with its mine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination. Assessment and analysis of the country’s mine action needs should occur before capacity building begins. When a need is defined, the capacity-building plan is specially tailored to the needs of the country. No “blueprint” for national capacity building exists; each plan should be designed to fit a country’s specific needs. NPA’s approach to capacity building has varied from country to country and changed over time. NPA has had many successes but has also identified opportunities for im-provement. Some efforts have been less successful, mainly because the program setup was not tailored to the country’s actual needs. For instance, several actors, including NPA and the U.N., have attempted to build capacity for years in South Sudan. Even though the national mine action authorities un-doubtedly have improved capacities, there is still a long way to go before authorities have an overview of contamination, and can plan and prioritize mine action effectively. Many reasons account for this, but the baseline capacity surely plays a role. Also important is the fact that South Sudan, as the world’s newest country, needs skilled and trained individuals at all government levels, and trained people are hard to keep when new job opportunities arise. Perhaps most importantly— and this is something the mine action community faces in several countries and needs to take seriously—is the fact that among the many priorities that South Sudan has, mine action may not be at the top of the list. Moreover, the importance put on mine action by national authorities themselves affects the ability to deliver capacity building.In Vietnam, NPA was asked to assist in setting up and training staff in the use of a database. As one of the most con-taminated countries in the world, the Vietnam government clears huge amounts of land every year without international NPA has implemented mine action programs in over 40 countries, such as South Sudan.Photo courtesy of CISR.NPA worked with partners to build capacity in South Sudan.Photo courtesy of CISR.2Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Vol. 18, Iss. 3 [2014], Art. 7https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol18/iss3/728 feature | the journal of ERW and mine action | fall 2014 | 18.3assistance. In this case Vietnam wanted the database but ul-timately did not want to use it as the international actors ex-pected. As a result, the capacity-building project was seen as a failure. More recently, Vietnam is again asking the inter-national community for assistance with its database, and the project from 2011 could constructively be seen as a warm-up exercise rather than a failure.Although NPA bases its approach on respectful partner-ship and close collaboration with national authorities, human and financial resources must be spent on efforts of highest pri-ority or those that bring added value. In Senegal for example, NPA chose to cease its operational and capacity-building ef-forts due to the perceived lack of political will, or real national interest in dealing with the country’s landmine/ERW contam-ination. This focus on a respectful partnership approach—un-doubtedly influenced by NPA’s philosophy and background as a larger developmental organization—requires a given coun-try to ultimately set the parameters for NPA’s work there.Specific Experience Aids TrainingDepending on the country context, national authorities are responsible for all or some of the mine action pillars.2 NPA’s strengths as a capacity-building actor come from its experi-ence as an operator, and this experience has naturally been brought into its capacity-building efforts. These efforts gener-ally focus on operations, planning, quality management and information management rather than the full myriad of areas that may require support.Increasingly, this focus on national responsibility is grow-ing with actors and stakeholders, including donors. In the re-cent U.K. Department for International Development tender, the inclusion of the Cluster Munition Remnants Survey (nor-mally an activity that would be considered in an operational tender) in the capacity-building tender validates that a greater understanding of the problem, coupled with the ability to an-alyze the information collected, is invaluable as a stand-alone capacity-building effort and a prerequisite to any capacity-building efforts that potentially follow.Large capacity-building projects developed as blueprints instead of reflecting evidence-based needs (with expensive and overarching coordination) have often proved unsuccess-ful in design and implementation. Project planning should include a proper needs assessment. Unfortunately, in many cases, seemingly unnecessary efforts are undertaken, or fo-cus is placed on capacities that require additional prerequisite skills. A proper appraisal of existing skills within a nation-al authority, along with the corresponding required abilities, is indispensable for any solid planning and effective capacity building to occur.Collaboration and Avoiding Conflicts of InterestNPA’s experience has shown that capacity-building efforts are ideally done in collaboration with other stakeholders, en-suring that all areas that require support receive the attention and specialized training needed. Several examples indicate where one actor was chosen to provide all the training and fol-low-up needed for establishing and maintaining an NMAC; for example in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the U.N. worked alone in trying to set up and build capacity of the national authorities. This, in NPA’s experience, has often failed, as conflict of interests may arise and the skill level required to fulfill all needs of an NMAC are often lacking in any one actor. Moreover, when more actors are involved, additional value can be found in the checks-and-bal-ances system this interaction provides. If an actor is the only operator in a country, the actor does not have the voice need-ed to question the country’s Article 5 completion declaration. NPA deminers in Zimbabwe.Photo courtesy of Werner Anderson.NPA offices in South Sudan.Photo courtesy of CISR.3Finson: Capacity Building: Lessons LearnedPublished by JMU Scholarly Commons, 20142918.3 | fall 2014 | the journal of ERW and mine action | featureSouth Sudan and DRC are only two ex-amples; many more can be found in Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon and Libya.Willingness to review and assess the objectives, plans and activities, i.e., the basics of a monitoring and evaluation system, is also critical to any project’s success. A capacity-building plan must be included as part of the implementa-tion of the national mine action strate-gy, and this plan should be dynamic and changeable to adapt to the successes, or lack thereof, during implementation. The only means of measuring and evalu-ating the effect of the capacity-building efforts is at the individual and organi-zational performance level. Evaluation of efforts has, in NPA’s experience, often been absent in the planning and devel-opment of capacity-building efforts.Lastly but critically, NPA has found that national authorities’ involvement has often been lacking, i.e., efforts were designed, activities planned and re-sources secured for activities that were not discussed with and agreed upon by national authorities. The foundation for long-lasting capacity building can only come from inclusion and leader-ship from those requesting support, along with the determined political will of national authorities to deliver on assessed problems. See endnotes page 65Vanessa Finson heads donor relations for the Department for Humanitarian Disarmament at Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA). She has worked for NPA since 2009 and held various functions in the department. Finson led the pro-cess of developing NPA’s Capacity Building Guideline and Methods. She holds a Master of Science in com-parative politics from the London School of Economics (U.K.).Vanessa FinsonHead of Donor RelationsNorwegian People’s AidDepartment for   Humanitarian DisarmamentStorgata 33 A, 0028 Oslo / NorwayTel: 0047 47705339Email: vanessaf@npaid.orgWebsite: http://www.npaid.org/Tracense Develops New Explosive DetectorScientists at Tracense, a technology company in Tel Aviv, Israel, created a new nanotechnology explosive detector. Tracense CEO Richard Osiroff says the appa-ratus can detect even the smallest explosive material.1 According to the Counter IED Report, the new device has an electronic chip that detects airborne traces of ex-plosives at concentrations as low as several molecules per quadrillion.2A team of researchers, directed by Professor Fernando Patolsky of the chemistry department at Tel Aviv University and its Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, helped develop the nanosensing tech-nology.3 Capable of detecting specific smells, the de-tector is built with a system of receptors that detect explosive chemicals by observing how molecules bind to each receptor.1With its high level of accuracy and sensitivity, this laptop-size portable detector can instantly pick up chemical traces of explosives in devices that stronger chemicals would otherwise hide.3 Patolsky says his team is working on making the technology the size of a mo-bile phone.4 Current methods of detection can be bulky, tedious to prepare and may only detect a few types of explosives.5 Since its creation, the detector found TNT, cyclonite and octogen, as well as peroxide-based explosives such as acetone peroxide and hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, illustrating its ability to detect military and commercial explosives as well as homemade devices.2Trancense is working to develop more sensors to meet growing needs of public safety, security and threat detection. See endnotes page 65~ Julie Hirschhorn, CISR staff4Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Vol. 18, Iss. 3 [2014], Art. 7https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol18/iss3/7

Capacity Building: Lessons Learned

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Capacity Building: Lessons Learned

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