This document provides simple practical guidance on land issues for mine action organisations. It covers the following topics: why land matters for mine action; land rights and land release; what mine action organisations can do; and where to get additional information and support.

Century Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management for the 21st Century provides forward-looking operational assistance to policy makers and technical specialists in the rapidly expanding cities and towns of the developing world on how best to manage the risk of floods. It takes a strategic approach, in which appropriate risk management measures are assessed, selected and integrated in a process that both informs and involves the full range of stakeholders.

I. Introduction

1.1 Objective of the Manual

Introduction

In late January 2010 the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) suspended a unilateral ceasefire until such time as the Nigerian government agreed to meet with a MEND delegation, as per previous governmental public statements. In doing so the MEND joined a long list of armed groups (understood within this publication to mean non-state armed groups that challenge the authority of the state) 1 that ask for guarantees of political talks before renouncing violence. Governments, meanwhile, usually argue for a ceasefire as a prerequisite to peace talks.