This report is based on a questionnaire circulated to the clearance community in March and April 2003 to ascertain their information requirements for dealing with ERW. A wide cross-section of organisations, including non-governmental organisations, United Nations programmes, commercial companies and government institutions was included in the survey. The primary criterion for inclusion was current involvement with ERW, as these are actors who will be directly affected should States Parties to the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) agree on a protocol to deal with ERW.
The report explains the rationale for the questions and presents the individual findings. The conclusion organises and presents the most significant results based on the quantitative analysis conducted by the GICHD. It is evident from the analysis that information plays a significant role in facilitating the clearance of ERW and enabling effective, targeted mine risk education to be implemented.