United Nations ReliefWeb

[redbullets]

Now going on three and one half years, I requested UNICEF assistance with a campaign to promote Mine Action Information Awareness. USEUCOM's HDO provided me with the names and operational HQs.

We wanted to get more info out to the schools; Spring was fast approaching and as the ground thawed, things would begin to surface. We had leaflets and brochures, and finally a tape (the link is here with SWJ under education).

We offered up half (about one grand USD) and asked for contributions which would obviously include space for advertising, should that become an issue.

Nothing, not even a negative reply.
Bogus comes to mind.
An organization with children in mind.
Yea, Christmas cards at reduced rates.

To date, only the USG, has replied, sent funds and PSYOPS to assist to the tune of 56 grand.

I suppose if we had more dead children as a result of playing with UXO, we would have gotten the population's attention, but would that mean UNICEF would then consider our little spot on earth ?

They have some nice websites, unfortunately I remain disappointed

Uh, you're not speaking with the right folks. I know this was originally posted a long time back, but if you still need this assistance, please send me an e-mail at jdonahue@vi.org. Generally, the Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) community has a lot less, um, attitudinal trouble working with military entities, particularly on something as necessary as Mine Risk Education (MRE - what we call it now - the relief and development communities like to change up their jargon just as often as the military).

HMA is heading in a direction that is usually termed "main streaming", meaning that it is becoming less the primary focus in international responses, and more a part of other efforts such as refugee return or WASH (the new name for Water and Sanitation/WATSAN). For that reason, some of the UN agencies and NGOs that had previously had a tremendous amount of focus on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) are now adding/shifting to things such as Small Arms/Light Weapons (SA/LW) and Disarmament/Demobilization/Reintegration (DDR, and I always screw up what this one means). Long preamble for the explanation that this might not be as high on their list of priorities at the moment.

Anyway, if this is still something you're trying to address, drop me a line and I'll try and get you linked up with the right folks. My organization works closely with DoD, as well as the Canadian Forces, and if we can't help, we can point you to someone who can.

Cheers,

Joe

[Stan]

Uh, you're not speaking with the right folks. I know this was originally posted a long time back, but if you still need this assistance, please send me an e-mail at jdonahue@vi.org. Generally, the Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) community has a lot less, um, attitudinal trouble working with military entities, particularly on something as necessary as Mine Risk Education (MRE - what we call it now - the relief and development communities like to change up their jargon just as often as the military).

HMA is heading in a direction that is usually termed "main streaming", meaning that it is becoming less the primary focus in international responses, and more a part of other efforts such as refugee return or WASH (the new name for Water and Sanitation/WATSAN). For that reason, some of the UN agencies and NGOs that had previously had a tremendous amount of focus on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) are now adding/shifting to things such as Small Arms/Light Weapons (SA/LW) and Disarmament/Demobilization/Reintegration (DDR, and I always screw up what this one means). Long preamble for the explanation that this might not be as high on their list of priorities at the moment.

Anyway, if this is still something you're trying to address, drop me a line and I'll try and get you linked up with the right folks. My organization works closely with DoD, as well as the Canadian Forces, and if we can't help, we can point you to someone who can.

Cheers,

Joe

Hey Joe and Welcome to the Forum !
I will indeed send you an email or two. Thanks.

The EOD Center is a civilian organization subordinate to the Rescue Services, which in most cases almost always means no funding from DOD elements. We are also responsible for typical LEO functions, but we're not connected to LE whatsoever, and that normally means no funding from DOJ.

However, the WRA folks continue to assist us and I even talked them out of cash this year.

EUCOM always always comes through. DOD and DOS are not the problem.
Even the US Embassy spent thousands to have our materials translated into English if we agreed to go to the International Schools and present the awareness program (which I did).

I basically need a contact at UNICEF to send the MRE project to or ask them for some ideas.

Thanks again and regards, Stan

[redbullets]

Thanks, I'm happy to have found this (quite late in the game, given my line of work, so the lick's on me).

WRA is our largest donor, bar none. The head of the office is my former immediate supervisor at VVAF/VFA, and the HMA community is a small one, so everyone knows everyone.

Where are you, by the way? We might have some folks nearby your location.

What needs to happen with this project? I think you'll find that the UN agencies are more involved in coordinating and usually use NGO implementing partners to get things done. However, if you e-mail me what you need from UNICEF, or more generally what your trying to accomplish and what resources you're trying to obtain, I'll share what I know.

Cheers,

Joe

[Stan]

Thanks, I'm happy to have found this (quite late in the game, given my line of work, so the lick's on me).

WRA is our largest donor, bar none. The head of the office is my former immediate supervisor at VVAF/VFA, and the HMA community is a small one, so everyone knows everyone.

Where are you, by the way? We might have some folks nearby your location.

What needs to happen with this project? I think you'll find that the UN agencies are more involved in coordinating and usually use NGO implementing partners to get things done. However, if you e-mail me what you need from UNICEF, or more generally what your trying to accomplish and what resources you're trying to obtain, I'll share what I know.

Cheers,

Joe

Joe,
I'm in Estonia. I've known Dennis H. for years and USMC COL Stu is, or already has retired. Marcus is now doing our program management. They came by this year (a tad early as it was friggin' cold), and things went extremely well.

I want to sell a MRE campaign to UNICEF - target audience 7 to 15. I know I can bug the folks at EUCOM (Stu C. is no longer there, but he has always helped out and promised to do so again, and his staff there know me from my RONCO days).

My beef was/is with UNICEF. They could've at least sent me hate mail with a big fat NO. The contact info I received was from EUCOM. I doubt I got the wrong person at UNICEF. Maybe I asked for too little ?

I wanted them to come in and tell me what they do. I can and already do preach at schools - nothing new there.

Regards, Stan

[redbullets]

Yep, Stu just retired last week. Dennis is still the man. Marcus is a good guy, I think he's going to be a great addition to that office. I'm doing my office call with Stu's replacement later this week.

Who are you working for in Estonia? My advice in dealing with this would be to get buy in with whatever UN offices are on the ground there (probaly UNDP?). There seems to be a bit sharper leadership in UNDP Mine Action these days, and John Flanagan is still the number 2 at UNMAS, so I can just ask him who's the power-that-is in Estonia for this stuff. Since you've been around this, you know how this stuff is different from one country to the next, depending upon which UN agency has the lead, and the quality of the people leading it.

I have heard that there has been a person above the UNICEF mine action office/NYC in the chain-of-command there who is not a big mine action supporter - one of those who view mine action as a distractor (when approached as a seperate sector/cluster as opposed to being integrated with the "traditional" sectors/clusters). I'll call the number 2 at UNICEF mine action and find out what they know about this, and if they can do anything.

Do you have a concept paper or outline that I can review and send on to them?

Cheers,

Joe

P. S. I'm still by visiting with somone or another at the RONCO offices in Washington about once a month. Now that Larry S. is gone, the guy I'm tightest with is probably Mike H. in Baghdad.

[Stan]

Yep, Stu just retired last week. Dennis is still the man. Marcus is a good guy, I think he's going to be a great addition to that office. I'm doing my office call with Stu's replacement later this week.

Who are you working for in Estonia? My advice in dealing with this would be to get buy in with whatever UN offices are on the ground there (probaly UNDP?). There seems to be a bit sharper leadership in UNDP Mine Action these days, and John Flanagan is still the number 2 at UNMAS, so I can just ask him who's the power-that-is in Estonia for this stuff. Since you've been around this, you know how this stuff is different from one country to the next, depending upon which UN agency has the lead, and the quality of the people leading it.

I have heard that there has been a person above the UNICEF mine action office/NYC in the chain-of-command there who is not a big mine action supporter - one of those who view mine action as a distractor (when approached as a seperate sector/cluster as opposed to being integrated with the "traditional" sectors/clusters). I'll call the number 2 at UNICEF mine action and find out what they know about this, and if they can do anything.

Do you have a concept paper or outline that I can review and send on to them?

Cheers,

Joe

P. S. I'm still by visiting with somone or another at the RONCO offices in Washington about once a month. Now that Larry S. is gone, the guy I'm tightest with is probably Mike H. in Baghdad.

Glad to see Stu retired and hopefully off doing what he wants (he will never forget the USMC). Dennis has saved our program more times than I care to count. When RONCO's contract ended, the Rescue Board took over and kept me on. Long story, and we'll need a few beers in order to cover the last 12 years

My initial step with UNICEF is to duplicate our MRE onto CDs in three languages and say 150 copies. About 2 grand USD. If willing, get same on a website. Just small steps as the critical period (Spring) is gone. Now need to try and address school children in February 08.

I'm also interested in what they would like to do. I've got the history and ugly pictures of children blown in two.


Regards, Stan

PS. Don't know Mike very well, but Larry was number one during my RONCO time and Bart handled my programs.
All these retired dudes !

[Nat Wilcox]

...and some of you who are involved in trying to get cooperation from NGOs may occasionally, and increasingly, find yourselves entangled with the competing demands of experimental social scientists.

We have seen this growing in the last five years or so, under the rubric "field experiments." Tried to hire a couple of these young bucks in the last couple of years as it is an increasingly hot area in Econ. Particularly in Africa, but also elsewhere. Typically, an established academic big shot at Harvard and some grad students plan some experimental intervention on the back of things NGOs are already doing. For instance (real example), some NGO might have an information program designed to inform teen girls in rural Kenya about HIV risk. So the experimentalists get them to randomly piggyback some kind of extra information on exactly half of the high school curricula they have. Then down the road, you look for the treatment effect of the added information on outcomes you do and do not want.

The thing is, uncontrolled and unplanned variation during a study period is anathema to experimental design. And this kind of work is booming right now--I mean growing exponentially. It is very hot. So I wouldn't be surprised if, in future, some of you find an NGO contact saying: "No, sorry, can't do that. We're currently in the middle of a controlled study for Herr Doktor Professor SuperBigshot..."

[redbullets]

I have experienced similar issues among the NGO community dealing with education/awareness programs. There is a lot of reinventing the wheel, and academic sharpshooters who parachute in at times, and admittedly, there are those of us in the mine action community who say "since when did this stuff become rocket science" and require so many Ph. D's in one location?

Cheers,

Joe