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This mine action and livelihoods survey (MA&LS) report is intended to contribute to more complete reporting to the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) and donors on the contribution made by the MAPA to Afghanistan’s development and how to further enhance the focus of demining to the development outcome level.
The MA&LS was planned by the DMAC with financial support from the U.S Department of State, Office of the Weapons Removal and Abatement (PM/WRA).
The main objective of the survey was to get a better understanding of the mine action impact on livelihoods and developments of the communities and how to further enhance the positive impact of mine action intervention to the communities.
DMAC, with technical support from UNMAS, trained and deployed four teams of Afghan men and women surveyors to visit the 21 selected communities within a Livelihoods Analysis approach in the two provinces.
The communities were selected in a way to give a contrasting sample of cleared and partially cleared situations, a mix of contamination types (UXO and/or mines), and urban and rural locations. The 21 villages surveyed cannot be fully representative of all affected communities in the region. However, selection sought to contrast urban and rural settings, different types of contamination and different stages of clearance.
Focus group discussions were held separately with men (village leaders, farmers and key informants), women and children.
Participation and Inclusion of the women surveyors considerably enhanced the breadth of the information obtained.
Opportunities were provided for the members of the teams to discuss the findings during debriefing sessions when the survey was completed in each of the two provinces.
Data was collected in Samangan province during 16 - 25 July 2016 where 12 communities were visited and in Bamyan province from 11-18 August2016 where 9 communities were visited.
From the data collected by the survey teams, a variety of observations on the livelihood and development outcomes after clearance were identified.
The findings of the livelihood team encouragingly point towards tangible livelihood gains being made by households after clearance of the areas blocked by mine and ERW contamination.