Sida's Contributions to Humanitarian Mine Action

At the same time as Sida has been one of the world’s leading donors to HMA, there has been a gradualdecrease in its funding level since 1998. Such a decrease can partly be explained as the aggregateresult of decisions taken on a country-level basis and partly as a result of multi-year contributions thatappear in the year that the grant is made. Nonetheless, since reaching a peak of almost 130 millionSEK in 1998, Sida’s contributions to HMA have shown a downward trend through 1999 (88.5 millionSEK) and for the year 2000 (76.7 million SEK). Total levels of funding, as indicated above do not tellthe entire story, yet the strong downward trend in funding signals a decrease in interest for the issue oflandmines within Sida.Assessing the Sida responseSida’s mine-action response can best be termed as fragmented and ad hoc. Although Sida has increasinglymoved towards a more integrated approach, whereby HMA is seen as part of an overall humanitarianeffort, mine action is still largely viewed as a separate sector. Consequently, one of the issues weexamine in the report is whether or not the lack of a clear HMA policy has left Sida vulnerable topolitical pressures in its decisionmaking, and we raise the question of to what degree Sida is able toretain control over its decisions. In the past two years, Sida has commissioned a specialist on HMA.This has come as a response to an evident need for Sida to design a policy on HMA and raise the levelof Sida’s knowledge on the issue. This report can be seen as one step in such a process.A second important aspect of Sida’s response is the emphasis of mine clearance as opposed to theother aspects of HMA, such as surveying, marking, mapping and data management. As pointed outearlier, 85% of Sida’s total contribution to mine action over the past decade has gone to clearance.Although some of these contributions have in reality been used for other activities such as mine awarenessand coordination, Sida’s primary emphasis is on mine clearance. 12 The importance of viewingHMA as a total ‘package’ and not as isolated components is an issue that we will return to throughoutthis report. In particular, the role of impact assessment is addressed in the next chapter, including itsimportance in ensuring the maximization of impacts.Methodology and study designThe methodology employed in the evaluation consists of the following components:Document and literature reviewIn our document and literature review, we have attempted to include all relevant Sida, government,UN and NGO documents, along with a review of existing studies. Such a review has been vital to thisstudy. The document and literature review was important in outlining Sida’s and the Swedish policyposition. A review of UN and NGO documents was further important in establishing prevailinginternational policy consensus, which could be systematically compared to Sida policy.Field visitsField visits to selected areas have constituted the second major component of the study. The field visitshave enabled the research team to interview personnel, review relevant documents, and observe andassess HMA practices. Due to the broad scope and the limited time-frame for the study, field visitscould not be made to all cases under consideration in this evaluation. For the purposes of the report,field visits were made to the following areas: Bosnia, Nicaragua, Kosovo and Afghanistan.12Preliminär redogörelse, note 6 above, pp. 5–6.10 Sida’s CONTRIBUTION TO HUMANITARIAN MINE ACTION – Sida EVALUATION 01/06