$317.5 MILLION REQUIRED TO ADDRESS LANDMINES,
EXPLOSIVE REMNANTS OF WAR IN TWENTY-NINE COUNTRIES OR TERRITORIES IN 2007
NEW YORK, 14 November 2006—More than 100 nongovernmental organizations, national authorities and United Nations agencies face a funding shortfall of $317.5 million for their efforts to tackle problems of landmines and explosive remnants of war in 29 countries or territories in 2007, according to the Portfolio of Mine Action Projects 2007, released here and in Geneva today.
The Portfolio is a collection of mine action project proposals published jointly by the United Nations Mine Action Service in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the UN Development Programme, and UNICEF. The 2007 edition includes 300 proposals covering all five "pillars" of mine action: clearance and marking of hazardous areas, mine risk education, victim assistance, destruction of stockpiled landmines, and advocacy for international agreements related to landmines and explosive remnants of war.
The combined budgets of all project proposals in the 2007 edition total $429 million. Of that amount, only $111.7 million in funding has been secured, resulting in the $317.5 million gap.
Landmines and explosive remnants of war continue to kill or injure thousands of people annually (about one in five casualties is a child). Although the number of incidents remains high, significant progress has been made toward eliminating the threat of landmines and explosive remnants of war worldwide. "Sustaining the progress and eventually eliminating the threat will require a continued commitment by donor countries and by the affected countries themselves," says UN Mine Action Service Director Maxwell Gaylard.
The launch of the 2007 Portfolio follows the November 12 entry into force of a new international agreement, "Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons." Twenty-six of the 29 countries or territories participating in the Portfolio indicate having problems with explosive remnants of war.
"Protocol V will help the United Nations and its partner organizations accelerate clean-up of explosive remnants of war after a conflict," Gaylard says. "Participating countries agree to provide information about where they might have used weapons, such as cluster bombs, that leave behind unexploded ordnance. This will make it easier to conduct mine risk education, provide landmine safety training for humanitarian and peacekeeping personnel, and locate and remove the threat."
Contact Gustavo Laurie, UN Mine Action Service, Geneva, at +41-22 917-2262, e-mail: glaurie@unog.ch, or Richard Kollodge, UN Mine Action Service, New York, at +1-212 963-5677, e-mail: kollodge@un.org.