Humanitarian mine action for increased protection of target communities and humanitarian actors MAG will enhance the protection environment through the deployment of two mine action teams. The function of both teams will be to reduce the threat of explosive hazards on humanitarian workers and vulnerable communities. This will be achieved through Risk Education, survey and clearance of explosive hazards. Risk Education and clearance tasks will be prioritized in order to expedite the delivery of humanitarian aid and access to humanitarian services.

Mine Action Integrated Protection Mobile Team (IPMT): The first team will be integrated into the IPMT. Comprised of one international Technical Field Manager (TFM) and one national Deminer Team Leader (DTL), the team will join the IPMT for six months starting 1 August 2017. Prior to an IPMT mission, the team will provide bespoke maps of hazardous areas (HAs) in targeted locations and risk education to humanitarian staff supporting and implementing the mission. During assessment missions, the mine action IPMT will gather data from local populations and humanitarian staff as to the presence of hazards and their impact on humanitarian activity and on the local communities. It will also carry out further threat assessments and will report previously unknown hazards to the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) for inclusion in the database of hazardous areas to be prioritised for clearance. Risk education sessions will be provided to at-risk communities in the locations targeted by the IPMT, in order to increase beneficiaries’ capacity to recognize and report hazards and to cope with the threat posed by unexploded ordnance until these are removed

Mine Action Team (MAT): The second team will be a mobile Explosive Ordnance Disposal/Risk Education team that will include one TFM, one DTL, one deputy DDTL, four Deminers, one Community Liaison Team Leader (CLTL), two CL Officers (CLOs), one medic and one driver. This team, which will be ready for operations by end of August, will focus on SSHF priority counties across Central Equatoria for a nine month period. It will remove unexploded ordnance as tasked by UNMAS in locations prioritised by the humanitarian community. The team is highly flexible and able to maintain full mobility at short notice throughout the rainy season. It will focus on areas in Central Equatoria state that are highly contaminated, in particular, Terekeka, Yei, Kajo-Keji and Lainya, where the humanitarian community requires unimpeded access to tackle protection needs (Yei and Kajo-Keji), displacement (all four counties), cholera outbreak (Terekeka) and critical food insecurity (Lainya and Kajo-Keji). The team will have the capacity to carry out spot-tasks to remove and destroy unexploded ordnance and perform basic battle area clearance. During their mobilisation the team will gather data from the population on unknown contamination and report them to IMSMA for clearance prioritization while providing risk education to these communities. This intervention will ensure humanitarian actors gain increased unimpeded access to priority areas and thus will contribute to an accelerated emergency response, mitigate the risk of injury and death to humanitarian workers and the local population, and improve access of at-risk beneficiaries to much needed humanitarian services.