The GICHD has designed a management tool for demining operations to assist in identifying and addressing reasons for the 'downtime' of manual, mechanical and animal assets.

'Downtime', which reduces the productivity and cost-effectiveness of the demining operations, includes:

• the breakdown of machinery;
• unfavourable weather conditions;
• illness;
• inefficient planning; and
• security reasons.

Key factors in determining whether demining operations will succeed or fail include:

• selecting the most appropriate assets and managing them effectively;
• properly understanding the best ways of using the various assets, and forward planning with this in mind.

This Excel-based tool has been enhanced from an earlier version of the same, is user friendly and is intended to improve the productivity and cost-effectiveness of demining operations. Data (including downtime and cause) is recorded daily for each asset, resulting in a set of reports that highlights operational inefficiency.

The tool and the operator manual are both downloadable from the GICHD webpage and have also been integrated into GICHD training packages.