Saturday, May 25, 2013
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A Mine Victim's Dream Comes True
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“Ever since the horrible accident of 2007, my life has become messed up,” says Abdallah.
At age 30, instead of reaching the peak of his productivity, Abdallah El Sheheby lost his right eye and right hand in a landmine explosion. That day will remain etched in his memory forever, as the day he would start to see the world through one eye. He was digging a hole in the ground to set up his boiler to prepare a cup of tea, when suddenly the mine exploded. All he remembers after that is waking up at the Sidi Barani Hospital and then being transferred to another hospital in Alexandria.
At first, Abdallah didn't know how to restart his life and by what means he was supposed to raise his three children; Hagar, Wedad and Awad. He was forced to close shop across the border in the neighbouring Libya when he found he was no longer able to run his business. His story is the same as many of the landmine victims in his native Matrouh and the North West Coast area of Egypt.
The North West Coast Development Plan and Mine Action project aims at providing support for the Government of Egypt to implement the National Plan for the Development of the North West Coast and Inland Desert. Clearing landmines from the area constitutes opening up the entire area for development.
Upon its launch in 2007, the project oversaw the establishment of the Executive Secretariat for Mine Clearance and the Development of the North West Coast within the Ministry of International Cooperation. Since then, the six-year project has developed communication and resource mobilization strategies, and coordinated with donors, civil society and the private sector to facilitate optimum support for its endeavours.
Such efforts resulted in placing Egypt’s mine problem at the centre of its national development agenda. This much needed attention and awareness-raising helped attract the interest of donors and mobilize the resources necessary to address this development challenge. The project also played an important role in facilitating the dialogue and interaction between the different civilian and military bodies, in addition to testing the pilot mine action processes.
In addition to conducting de-mining activities based on clearly identified humanitarian and development needs, the project also focused on conducting mine risk education and victim assistance activities. Victim assistance in particular is based on four distinct yet interconnected pillars, namely: data collection, data analysis, rehabilitation services, and defining income-generating activities for mine victims and their direct relatives.
In the outset, the project faced some difficulties in dealing with tribal dynamics and a unique cultural setting, given that the landmine-contaminated areas of the North West Coast are predominantly inhabited by Bedouin communities, who may at times be reluctant in dealing with external actors. At the same time, these tribal characteristics remain crucial to understanding the social impact of the mine problem in Egypt, as well as the challenges to meet local needs and develop inclusive and participatory victim assistance and economic reintegration strategies.
Currently approaching the end of its initial pilot phase, the Egypt Mine Action programme has over the summer of 2011 looked at the project’s activities from the long-term, sustainable perspective. Accordingly the project initiated a series of intensive meetings with the different stakeholders including the mine victims and their representatives, traditional leaders and local religious leaders, as well as representatives from the Governorate and relevant sector Ministries.
This consultative process, aiming to further engage the mine victims in their own development process, represented a major shift towards a more participatory, bottom-up approach in which the victims are not merely regarded as recipients of development plans but as the actual drivers of their own development. The process resulted in the project launching a microcredit loan programme focusing on women, benefiting a total number of 100 female mine victims and female relatives of deceased mine victims (40 of them being survivors of mine incidents, the remaining 60 being female relatives of male deceased mine victims), which are too often unaccounted for despite their crucial contribution to the financial stability of the family unit.
This shift in the project’s approach saw in return a dramatic shift in the attitude of not only the mine victims themselves, but also of their representatives and community leaders. The participatory approach generated a positive attitude of self-advocacy and a genuine feeling of empowerment. It was quite clear that by feeling engaged and as leaders of their own development process, they felt a renewed sense of control over their lives and destinies.
“I don't cry out loud, but my heart used to cry all the time,” says Abdallah. It’s been five years since his landmine accident and still he had suffered tremendously every time he had to ask someone for help to wash his face. Yet in an attempt to survive his painful tragedy, he decided not to give up, and focused on educating himself and participating in mine awareness campaigns to support mine victims. Abdallah believes that such campaigns help advocate for the issue of landmines in Egypt, and play an important role in preventing further bloodshed and suffering. Abdallah has recently cofounded an NGO specializing in assisting mine victims.
“Once I finish my training with the project, I will assist my colleagues in the NGO to establish their own income generating projects,” says Abdallah.
With a total budget of $2,377,795, the Mine Action and Development of the North West Coast Programme’s pilot phase launched in 2007 was completed in 2009. The programme is currently operating under a “transitional phase” in preparation for the second phase of the project to be launched shortly. The Mine Action programme has received the support of a multitude of donors and partners, namely: the Ministry of International Cooperation of Egypt, the German Federal Foreign Office, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), UNDP’s Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, UNDP and in-kind contributions from the Egyptian Ministry of Defence, as well as several Egyptian private and Non-Governmental Organizations.
The second phase is expected to be launched towards the end of 2012.
For more information:
North
West Coast Development and Mine Action Project Fact Sheet
North
West Coast Development and Mine Action Project Project Document
http://www.undp.org/cpr/
http://www.mineactionegypt.com/en/
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Crisis Management and Recovery
The February 2001 UNDP Executive Board reaffirmed that crisis prevention and disaster mitigation should be integral parts of sustainable human development strategies.
UNDP helps countries prevent and recover from armed conflicts and natural disasters through advocacy, capacity building, conflict sensitive development, development of tools and methodologies, gender equality, knowledge networking, strategic planning and programming, and policy and standard setting.
Cooperation between UNDP and IDSC
UNDP, supported by its global experience, provides technical support to the Disaster Reduction Programme. In the future, this would include support to the establishment of an inter ministerial Disaster Reduction Unit, as well as technical and managerial support to the National Emergency Coordination Center that can better coordinate relief efforts in emergency times.
At the request of the Government of Egypt and technically supported by BCPR, UNDP Egypt supported a comprehensive assessment of disaster management and risk reduction institutions and initiatives in the country. A national consultant was recruited to undertake the assessment assignment and to work in close consultation with all relevant stakeholders and in coordination with the UNDP and the Regional Disaster Reduction Advisor for Arab States on this front.
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| The assignment produced a document which will be discussed in a meeting with all relevant stakeholders. The discussions and the meeting would produce a concept project document that can be the basis of the Government plans, through the Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) including a potential partnership with UNDP.
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