In January 2005 an IMSMA team from the GICHD helped the national Mine Action Centre in Guinea-Bissau (CAAMI) to validate information about existing mine fields and UXO spots in the capital Bissau . In a concentrated effort the coordinates and other information of over twenty minefields were recorded and stored in IMSMA. Both traditional means and advanced tools were used to achieve this result. For some minefields paper based forms were used to validate coordinates, which then were entered manually into IMSMA. The majority of the data collection was done using the EOD IS-SURVEY Handheld Tool jointly developed by SWEDEC and the Geneva Centre. The Handheld was used to record the information electronically in the field and then through an IMSMA add-on it was directly imported into IMSMA.
Receiving reliable information from the field remains one of the most challenging tasks in mine action. Errors can happen all along the information management cycle, notably during information gathering and information recording. Modern tools like the IMSMA handheld help reduce errors during the data gathering process, but a lot can also be accomplished if the data collection team simply works as a team: most errors can be detected and eliminated when operators, the operations department in the MAC and the IT department cooperate in this matter.
The example of Guinea-Bissau shows that such a joint approach can drastically improve the quality of data collected and stored in IMSMA. The Operations department of CAAMI (and the IT cell that is a part of the Ops department) worked closely together with the national operators during this mission to collect and validate the data. As a result, both the Mine Action Centre and the operators have validated and reliable data available to guide further planning and action.
