Delivery IED Survey & Clearance National Capacity Development for Mine Action in Afghanistan
BACKGROUND
Artios was contracted by the HALO Trust at the end of 2021 to design and deliver a capacity development project on behalf of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS).
The project provided continued support to the Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan (MAPA) as they scale the national capacity for survey and clearance of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) contamination in Afghanistan.
In 2020, HALO and Artios delivered an IED training and equipment project to the MAPA, to enable them to start to better respond to the ever-growing need for survey and clearance of post conflict IED contamination in Afghanistan. This was in response to the strong indications that over half of all explosive hazard related accidents in Afghanistan were now caused by victim operated improvised explosive devices (VOIEDs).
The project in 2020 culminated in Artios delivering a Training of Trainers course to a cohort of Afghan instructors from national NGOs from across the MAPA. These instructors would be critical to the subsequent project, which had even more ambitious goals.
IED DESTROYED BY CONTROLLED DEMOLITION IN MAY 2022.
OUR ROLE
The project was delivered over two phases :
phase 1
Supporting the Afghan instructors from the 2020 project as they in turn delivered a variety of IED survey and clearance courses, including an IMAS compliant IED Disposal course.
Phase 2
Artios designed and delivered the project based on a Needs Analysis compiled in accordance with IMAS 06.10 Management of Training. This included developing a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to help support the adoption of long term and sustainable change, in terms of the types of humanitarian mine action operations that the six national NGOs benefiting from the project would be able to conduct.
IED located by national NGO using linear procedures incorporating specialist IED detectors.
For a variety of reasons, Artios adopted a hybrid format to deliver the project, with Artios staff providing support via a Remote Training and Mentoring (RTM) system. This incorporated routine teleconferencing, video sharing and robust Quality Assurance. As the project progressed, Artios deployed small teams of international staff to conduct in-person training and mentoring on site. This was particularly beneficial to support the experienced national staff provided by HALO during the live Technical Survey and Clearance operations during Phase 2 and also to gauge the effectiveness of the training.
STAFF FROM NATIONAL NGOS USING CALIBRATING SPECIALIST IED DETECTORS PRIOR TO COMMENCING OPERATIONAL CLEARANCE.
RESULTS
This project successfully enabled MAPA to scale the IED survey and clearance capacity in Afghanistan through critical support to national NGOs.
