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Explosive Ordnance Risk Education: Building safer futures through awareness & behavioural change

An estimated 60 million people live with the threat of explosive ordnance, some for decades after conflicts end. Explosive ordnance, such as landmines and unexploded cluster munitions, pose significant risks and claim thousands of lives every year, most of them civilians. There is a powerful tool that can empower civilians to protect themselves with safer behaviours: Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE).

EORE provides people with the vital knowledge needed to recognise, avoid, and report potential explosive ordnance hazards. Based on an understanding of casualty data, the type of contamination, and the mechanisms that drive behaviour of at-risk populations and those that lead to behavioural change, EORE campaigns empower individuals and communities to reduce the risks to themselves and their loved ones.

 

The EORE Essentials E-Learning fills an important need in light of the risks facing weapon contaminated communities arising from recent and past conflicts. It is significant that there is now a global training available accessible to all those interested. The approaches and methodologies contained in the training are essential for the mine action community and can also be a benefit to other disciplines as well.

Louis Maresca Deputy Head, Weapons Contamination Unit, ICRC

EORE Essentials E-learning course

Practitioners, like EORE professionals and community liaison officers, play a critical role in carrying out effective risk education activities. Raising awareness on the life-saving nature of EORE and providing specialised training for these professionals is essential to ensure the success of EORE interventions. With the EORE Essentials E-learning course the GICHD has filled an important gap, providing easy access to a global course on the core principles of EORE, allowing practitioners to assess and respond to the specific needs of affected communities and promoting more investment in risk education.

Hear from Dr Hend Selim, Executive Secretariat for Demining and Development, Egypt

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Filling a global gap on EORE training

Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) is a vital component of risk reduction approaches for the protection of lives during and after conflict. The design and delivery of effective EORE interventions require a specific set of skills and competences. A key driver of the creation of the GICHD’s EORE Essentials e-learning course was a lack of accessible training opportunities for practitioners.

An EORE Sector Mapping and Needs Analysis carried out by the GICHD in 2019 found a lack of sector-wide agreement on qualifications required for EORE practitioners and, until 2017, there were no specific EORE trainings or qualifications available at sector level. UNICEF introduced two annual courses, but access remained limited to those who can attend in person. No other training opportunities presently exist at global or intra-organisational level for EORE professionals.

This has led to a capacity gap: while in recent years the EORE sector has reviewed its standards, approaches, and guidelines for effective EORE, these are not yet or always translated into implementation. There is a need to ensure that those responsible for designing and delivering EORE, across all countries and organisations, have access to standardised training and up to date resources providing a basic grounding in the fundamentals of effective EORE in line with International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).

Promoting and professionalising EORE 

The objective of the EORE Essentials e-learning journey is to raise the standard of EORE design and delivery, in line with IMAS, by offering essential knowledge on the core principles of effective and ethical EORE. The course builds understanding of effective EORE tools, methodologies, approaches and their use; helps to standardise terminology and data collection; and address many of the concerns that exist with regard to basic knowledge on EORE. While primarily focusing on fundamental ‘building blocks’ that constitute effective risk education interventions, the course also provides resources to respond to context-specific challenges and threats. 

This entry-level e-learning module primarily targets professionals involved in the management, design and delivery of EORE activities worldwide, as well as key stakeholders who could benefit from enhanced understanding of the risk education pillar, such as protection, education and development actors.

Hear Lt Col Ali Makki, LMAC, discuss how the e-learning module is being used to promote EORE across sectors

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One of the biggest advantages of this E-Learning is that it is self-paced, and it can be completed independently and at any time by the learners. It is also available in several languages and in off-line version for colleagues with limited internet access. 

Lt Col Ali Makki Media and Risk Education Section Head, LMAC

The EORE Essentials e-learning provides a standard foundation in EORE based on IMAS and good practice, focusing on the key principles for effective and ethical EORE.

The e-learning course is interactive and scenario-based and features the stories/voices/experiences of real-life EORE practitioners – peer to peer.

The course is currently in Arabic, English and Ukrainian

A highly collaborative process

The Introduction to EORE Essentials e-learning was developed by the GICHD with the support of the EORE Advisory Group and a training task group of EORE experts from across organisations who provided technical inputs and overall quality management. 

The training task group was essential to deliver the quality of the course it now has, for module 1 but also for the other modules that are near final by the time of writing. While not all members may have contributed fully throughout the process it was the collaborative critical look, cross-checking, constructive feedback, which made the difference. This inclusive approach pushed me personally to commit my time and energy to invest in this endeavour and to encourage and remind other MAG colleagues to adhere to deadlines. The high quality of the course will prove that it was worth investing into the collaborative process.

Sebastian Kasack Senior Community Liaison Advisor, Mines Advisory Group

The EORE Essentials E-Learning

1000 +
Learners successfully completed the EORE Essentials
60
Countries
85
Organisations

EORE Essentials is required training at major mine action organisations including: HALO Trust, Lebanon Mine Action Centre, Mines Advisory Group (MAG) 

How is the EORE Essentials e-learning being integrated into trainings from mine action organisations around the world?

Hear from Kim Fletcher of The HALO Trust.

The e-Learning has been instrumental for our programme in designing and planning of activities. One of our mandates was to enhance awareness programs on the dangers posed by ERW in affected ASEAN counties and communities. This course provided us with clear insights on the design and delivery of message that are understandable in context, realistic, and persuasive.

Chea Phon Program Analyst, ASEAN Regional Mine Action Center (ARMAC)

I have noticed improved professionalism in EORE over the past years and the e-learning course is definitely contributing to this.

Sebastian Kasack Senior Community Liaison Advisor, Mines Advisory Group

Ready to get started?

Join more than 1,000 successful learners and access the EORE Essentials e-learning course today.  

Access the EORE E-learning course

Coming Soon

The success of the first EORE Essentials e-learning confirmed the need for more accessible EORE training. An advanced EORE e-learning course with more modules will be launched in 2023. While the Introduction to EORE Essentials was design for a broad audience, this second course was designed specifically for EORE practitioners. It focuses on the entire project cycle of an EORE programme. 

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