(KPL) The Lao government and the United Nation Development Programme signed a new UXO support project in Vientiane on July 7.

The project will focus on enhanced support to livelihood activities for affected populations, improved efficiency of clearance operations, progress in the effort to establish a national baseline of UXO contamination, improved transparency in financial and results reports and improved coordination of sector activities through enhanced management of information.

The document was signed by Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Khampheng Xaysompheng and UNDP Resident Representative Balasubramaniam Murali.

The new project comprises a financial envelope of US$ 84 million and will be funded via the UNDP to the project or directly from bilateral donors to the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) and UXO Lao. As of the date of signing, Australia, the European Union, Ireland, KOICA, Luxembourg and New Zealand will contribute to the project via UNDP, while Japan and the United States of America are providing bilateral funding to project activities. The project duration is set until the end of 2021.

“‘Moving towards achieving SDG 18 — Removing the UXO obstacle to Development in Lao PDR’ is the title of a new project that the National Regulatory Authority for UXO and Mine Action, the national UXO clearance operator, UXO Lao, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will jointly implement,” said Mr Balasubramaniam.

“The project title refers to Lao PDR’s own national Sustainable Development Goal — SDG18: Lives Safe from UXO — launched in the presence of the Prime Minister of Lao PDR and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane in September 2016. SDG 18 includes targets concerning elimination of casualties, clearance of highly impacted areas and support to health care and livelihoods of UXO victims,” added Mr Balasubramaniam.

The project builds on UNDP’s 20-year experience in the UXO sector in Lao PDR, having been instrumental in establishing both UXO Lao in 1996 and the National Regulatory Authority in 2005.

“In total, during the past 20 years of its work, UXO Lao has cleared 36,800 hectares of land for safe use, destroying more than 1.4 million pieces of different types of UXO. This new project will concentrate on the clearance of the most contaminated provinces, supporting a new, evidence-based survey methodology to focus clearance on high-risk areas. This new approach has resulted in a four-fold increase in the number of UXO cleared per hectare of land already,” said Mr Khampheng.

“UXO clearance will be prioritised and facilitated by the establishment of a national baseline of UXO contamination. Transparency, standardisation and an improved policy for the support of victims will be further objectives of the project, which includes a component for new partnerships on gender,” said Mr Khampheng.

KPL