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"Harpviken, Kristian Berg"
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Breaking new ground: Afghanistan's response to landmines and unexploded ordnance
Operating since the late 1980s, in an environment of shifting wars, the Humanitarian Mine Action ( HMA ) programme in Afghanistan has nonetheless been highly successful in reducing the impact of landmines. This article discusses three factors that have contributed to its success: the building of national capacity; the systematic application of surveys; and the ability to act flexibly and innovatively. Having operated under the auspices of the UN, but in the absence of a functioning government, the programme faces new challenges with the potential transition to peace in Afghanistan. Ultimately, however, the programme is a world leader in its field, and as one of the best functioning sectors in economic and humanitarian assistance to the country, it represents a key resource for a new internationally recognised Afghan government.
Journal Article
After Bonn: Conflictual peace building
The Bonn Agreement of December 2001 lays the foundations for a political transition in Afghanistan after 23 years of war. The agreement excludes the defeated party, the Taliban, while seeking to commit the remaining groups to a long-term and loosely defined peace process. With Afghan regionally based political-military groups defined largely along ethnic lines, and closely linked to external powers, rebuilding national authority will be a slow and conflictual process. Rebuilding the coercive capacity of the state is essential to overcome strong centrifugal tendencies, yet must be timed so as not to get ahead of the restoration of legitimate political authority. International assistance can support the political recovery by being conscious of the need to neutralise the 'spoilers' of the peace process. Making haste slowly in aiding economic recovery can prevent armed competition for power at the centre. To promote this kind of transition, and promote Afghan influence in the peace-building process, the international aid community must fundamentally reorient the strategies and methods of past involvement in the country.
Journal Article
Humanitarian mine action and peace building: exploring the relationship
Focusing on the humanitarian mine action (hma) sector, this article argues that rooting peace building in concrete activities carries considerable promise, diversifying the repertoire and enhancing the robustness of peace building. However, the assumption that mine action necessarily contributes to building peace is problematic and permits the neglect of harmful effects and a failure to capitalise fully on the potential for positive ones. If peace building is seen in terms of three major domains-security, development and politics-the current tendency is to emphasise security primarily, development secondarily, and the political only marginally when addressing the impact of hma on peace building. Several examples indicate that mine action may have a significant impact on the political aspects of peace building, including confidence building, conflict resolution and reconciliation. At the same time, linking mine action to peace building creates certain dilemmas, and a rigid subordination of mine action initiatives to a centrally directed peace building strategy is unlikely to be productive. Ultimately, a focus on the peace building role of mine action carries a dual promise for the sector: it documents impacts that are currently unacknowledged, while encouraging new and refined practices.
Journal Article
Measures for mines: approaches to impact assessment in humanitarian mine action
The ability to assess the impact of humanitarian interventions is key both for priority-setting and for maximising the quality of projects. Humanitarian mine action (hma) is a young sector, where the application of impact assessment is still in its infancy. In this article we will briefly revisit the history of impact assessment in hma, before reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of three different impact-assessment approaches: 1) the Landmine Impact Survey; 2) economic analysis; and 3) community studies. Each of the approaches has its own merits as well as its own shortcomings and the selection of one approach, or several approaches combined, needs to be informed by the particular conditions in a given setting. We argue that hma should always be based on sound impact-assessment practices, but also that it is important to encourage a general understanding of broader impact issues-as opposed to narrow output definitions-among all relevant stakeholders. In spite of considerable progress over the past few years on this issue, impact in mine action is still largely perceived as an event rather than an integral part of the process and specialised units responsible for impact assessment isolate this activity from day-to-day field management.
Journal Article
Acting as one? co-ordinating responses to the landmine problem
This article looks at co-ordination within humanitarian mine action (hma), and co-ordination between hma and other humanitarian and development initiatives. The discussion focuses specifically on the role of UN-led Mine Action Centres (macs) and the analysis draws on case studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Afghanistan. A contention throughout is that macs often employ a rigid approach to co-ordination. This constricts the flexibility of mine action organisations, limits the development of creative initiatives and poses a barrier to co-ordination between hma and other humanitarian initiatives. A second point pursued is that co-ordination arrangements are embedded in a broader institutional context, and this context has in turn the potential to impact on co-ordination. The analysis presented here suggests a number of implications for hma in general, together with a number of policy considerations. The article concludes by offering some thoughts for the future on the importance of effective co-ordination arrangements both within hma as a sector and between hma and other sectors of humanitarian assistance.
Journal Article
The future of humanitarian mine action
Discusses the 1997 Landmine Convention, political context of campaign to ban landmines, HMA's role in peace-building and postwar reconstruction, involvement of affected communities in Afghanistan, Angola, and Cambodia in demining operations, and current state of impact assessment in mine action; 11 articles. Contents: The convention banning anti-personnel mines: applying the lessons of Ottawa's past in order to meet the challenges of Ottawa's future, by Kerry Brinkert; \"Emailed applications are preferred\": ethical practices in mine action and the idea of global civil society, by J. Marshall Beier; Humanitarian mine action and peace building: exploring the relationship, by Kristian Berg Harpviken and Bernt A. Skåra; Balancing risk: village de-mining in Cambodia, by Ruth Bottomley; Risky business or constructive assistance? community engagement in humanitarian mine action, by Bernt A. Skåra; Acting as one? co-ordinating responses to the landmine problem, by Kjell Erling Kjellman, Kristian Berg Harpviken, Ananda S. Millard, and Arne Strand; Mine smartness and the community voice in mine-risk education: lessons from Afghanistan and Angola, by Neil Andersson, Aparna Swaminathan, Charlie Whitaker, and Melissa Roche; Measure for mines: approaches to impact assessment in humanitarian mine action, by Kristian Berg Harpviken, Ananda S. Millard, Kjell Erling Kjellman, and Bernt A. Skåra; Crisis, containment and development: the role of the Landmine Impact Survey, by Bob Eaton; Making analytical tools operational: task impact assessment, by Belinda Goslin; Ideological and analytical foundations of mine action: human rights and community impact, by Christopher Horwood.
Journal Article