Emergency Explosive Ordnance Risk Education: Lessons Learned from Ukraine

Authors

Nick Vovk, Danish Refugee CouncilFollow

Abstract

Following the Russian Federation military offensive launched on 24 February 2022, the context and extent of Ukraine’s explosive ordnance (EO) contamination drastically changed, leaving mine action (MA) operators with the need to provide emergency explosive ordnance risk education (EORE). Faced with scarce up-to-date guidance and good practices on the topic, the global EORE Advisory Group (AG)[1] produced a refreshed document to support implementation. In September 2023, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) also surveyed the entire MA community in Ukraine and organized a joint lessons-learned workshop to review the past eighteen months of emergency EORE programming. The workshop addressed various aspects of the latter, as prioritized by EORE practitioners: coordination and monitoring, informational materials, provision of EORE for persons-on-the-move and those in hard-to-reach areas, digital EORE, as well as the integration of EORE with the broader humanitarian response. This article is dedicated to summarizing the results and public discussions to inform both the global and Ukrainian EORE community of practice.

Recommended Citation

Vovk, Nick (2024) "Emergency Explosive Ordnance Risk Education: Lessons Learned from Ukraine," The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction: Vol. 28 : Iss. 1 , Article 5.
Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol28/iss1/5