MRE programme design, implementation, evaluation, and recommendation for improvement

The findings under this section were mainly from the Community Awareness Officer (K1), who participated in the focus group and the in-depth interviews, and from the awareness office in the district. This section of the chapter is considered essential in that it provides information about how the MRE sessions in the village were organized and implemented. This helps the researcher to decide if the MRE sessions are effective in communicating education to the village, or otherwise. Poor organization of the sessions would mean the MRE is not effective or not entirely passed to community members.

4.4.1. Design and implementation

The Mine Advisory Group (MAG) is responsible for designing MRE programmes. Designing a specific programme requires that a number of issues which are considered to be the ground rules for designing and implementing MRE programmes are factored in. Primarily, the MRE ground rules from the NRA should guide MRE in the Lao PDR. In addition to the ground rules, design of a MRE programme is based on ‘indicators and targets’ that are stated in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government. Indicators and targets are basically the goals that the donors seek to realize in terms of preventing UXO related accidents and incidents as per the contract with MAG, and they are informed by the nature of the accidents and incidents that are common before that MRE programme. The third consideration

focuses on the target group. The target group for a MRE programme is the group of the villagers in the area who need to alter behaviour and life style, grouped to ensure that an optimum and well designed programme is developed. Fourthly, the programme is shaped by the UXO accident or incident frequency in the target area. Lastly, the process involves consolidation of UXO risk and protection lessons into the primary and secondary school curriculum according to guidelines provided by the government.

After the programme design is complete, it is implemented as per the donor’s plan, contained in the MoU with donor. The community liaison then collects data from the community and provides information about risks and impacts and how to villagers are protecting themselves from UXO accidents or incidents. The third step in the implementation process is to identify village volunteers who can be employed to promote awareness of UXO risks and teach locals about basic first aid.

4.4.2. MRE evaluation and community response to the MRE programme

MAG has a pre and post evaluation form that is used to evaluate the effect of a programme every time an awareness campaign is implemented. The form is designed to evaluate how well community members understand UXO risks and how to correctly protect themselves from UXO incidents and accidents. The evaluation is a survey to gauge villagers’ knowledge before a MRE programme is implemented, and after, to establish the impact of the programme in changing the villagers opinions regarding UXO risks and their adoption of the right protective and preventative measures.

The attitude and behaviour of the community members towards MRE programmes suggests that they are happy to participate. An example of these behaviours is observed when organising a risk awareness session in primary schools. Children show keenness and enthusiasm to participate as well as active engagement during the question and answer segment of the session. Additionally, during the post evaluation process, students, and village members are able to recognise and remember the names of the community liaison officers who conducted the risk awareness programme in their respective schools and/or villages. It has been established that villagers are able to accurately recall the lesson when MRE officers visit their villages during evaluative community visits.

The participants in the focus group had some suggestions about how MRE programmes can be implemented.

4.4.3. Challenges for conducting MRE programmes and recommendations for improvement

The implementation of MRE faces a number of challenges, the first being the number of people who participate in a session. The proportion of villagers who participate in a session is small compared to the village population. The second challenge is that during the farming season fewer people participate in the programme. For people living in remote areas there is limited access, as the roads become impassable during rainy seasons. For ethnic groups, there are some cultural beliefs, for instance that women are weak and better for house chores like serving tea, that prevent women from participating in MRE programmes. Lastly, according to interview findings, promotional materials used in the programme have not been updated and the materials used for motivation are not adequate.

To improve the MRE programme, the first recommendation is that the agency be asked to increase funds specifically for the MRE programme. Secondly, the central and local governments should emphasise the importance of rising awareness about UXO issues more broadly, and lastly, each and every sector, government department, and private company should promote UXO risk awareness and the methods for prevention of UXO-related accidents and incidents.

The finding of this section of the chapter is that the design and implementation of MRE programmes is dependent on the ground rules set by the NRA and the targets determined by the donor of the financial support for the programme. The programmes are run by Laotians who are mainly members of the community. MAG carries out pre and post evaluation for every MRE programme. Some of the issues raised here are that the number of people who participate in MRE programmes is still low, gender bias is a problem as women are sidelined in the programmes, and promotional materials used for the programmes are old and outdated.