Landminen: Auswirkungen auf Gesellschaften in Entwicklungsländern

Landmines: The impact on societies in developing countries.
The report written by Anne Dailly Hamdorf and Marion Gnanko Geisler as their dissertation at the Geographic Department of the Ruhr-University in Bochum explains and analyses the landmine problem and the mine action approach.
As the landmine problem has been largely neglected within German geographic research so far, the first part of the thesis offers a detailed introduction into the development and deployment of the landmine technology as well as an overview of existing demining techniques and their practical advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, international agreements on landmines are examined and discussed with respect to their contribution to a solution to the landmine problem on a political level.
The main focus of the thesis consists in the planning and implementation of mine action activities in view of the extent of the contamination problem and the large amount of measures to be taken in contrast to the limited resources available. Conclusions for appropriate mine action strategies and approaches are made on the basis of an explanation and analysis of

1. the complexity of the socio-economic impact of landmines on the affected population and
2. the setting of priorities within the planning and implementation of mine action activities. 

Socio-economic impact assessment methods and instruments applied within the process of priority setting are being analysed in view of their use, reliability and applicability as well as their actual application and acceptance by mine action operators.
Afghanistan and Mozambique are two countries with very different social and conflict-related backgrounds and consequently different natures of the landmine impact on the affected population. The mine action programmes of these two countries operating since more than 15 years have been chosen to demonstrate how mine action strategies and approaches have been applied in practice. The different experiences made throughout the years serve as a basis to draw conclusions regarding the further development and amelioration of mine action planning and the corresponding methods and instruments.