The National Committee for Demining and Rehabilitation (NCDR) has begun preparations for the World Summit on a Mine Free World to be held in Nairobi from 29 November to 3 December. It is anticipated that over 140 countries, 800 delegates, Heads of States, and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will attend the event. The purpose of the Summit is to review the first 5 years of the Ottawa Convention banning the use, stockpile, and transfer of landmines and to chart a unified way forward to ensure that by 2009, when the majority of countries, including Jordan, reach their 10 year anniversary of ratification, they are free of landmines.
Led by the work of the NCDR and the Royal Engineer Corps, Jordan has contributed to the build-up of the Summit by submitting to the United Nations their priorities and plans for 2005-2009. Also, members of the NCDR have attended several high level steering committee meetings in Geneva, while Jordan hosted a regional seminar on the universalization of the Ottawa Convention in April of this year which drew representatives from countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa Region.
In support of the NCDR, and mine action in Jordan in general, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation established a capacity development project at the NCDR which formally began in May of this year. The objective of the UNDP project is to help NCDR strengthen its coordination capacity in the area of information management, planning, and reporting on progress being made in mine clearance, mine risk education, and survivor and victim assistance.
Improvements in these areas will help to reduce the risk of further landmine accidents, which now stands at 529 victims. Furthermore, given the lack of arable land in Jordan, the impact on clearing fertile areas in the Jordan Valley, Eastern Highlands, or Wadi Araba are significant in many social and economic ways. In the Jordan Valley mine clearance undertaken by the Royal Engineer Corps has made safe lands that have been turned into date plantations; cleared the historically significant Baptism site; and facilitated the building of the Al-Karameh and Wehdah Dams which hold important water reserves of over 150 million cubic meters.
“Improving planning and coordination will further bring development benefits to Jordan by targeting the most important project and most at risk communities first”, said Dr. Olaf Juergensen, UNDP Chief Technical Advisor, he added "Jordan has been doing an excellent job on addressing the landmine threats and with a little more technical and financial support from the international community Jordan should be able to meet its Convention deadline of being mine free by 2009, while at the same ensuring that mine action contributes directly to the poverty reduction efforts of the Kingdom."
The NCDR's Chairperson, General (Ret.) Mohammed Makawi feels that the NCDR's role is crucial in this area “NCDR is designed to be the national authority for promoting, organizing, planning and fund raising for the Mine Action activities with the contribution of other counterparts” Makawi said. He added that “the NCDR’s vision is represented in reducing the impact of Mines over Jordan and to reintegrate other Mine Action Programmes with the national economic and development programmes”.
To UNDP Mine action is not so much about landmines as it is about people and their interactions with mine-affected environments. Its aim is humanitarian and developmental: to recreate an environment in which people can live safely; in which economic and social well-being can occur free from the constraints imposed by landmines; and in which victims' needs are addressed. Drawing on its considerable experience, UNDP helps address the landmine problem from a long-term development perspective, creating the conditions for the resumption of normal economic activity, reconstruction, and development.
For further inromation please contact Dr. Olaf Juergensen, UNDP Chief Technical Advisor at 5859615