| Project Detail |
The project aims to strengthen development-focused land clearance and other activities, including survey and clearance of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), Victim Assistance (VA), Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE), and advocacy, in support of achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 18, and implementing Safe Path Forward III 2021-2030 (SPF III), the current ten-year UXO sector strategic plan for Lao PDR. The project focuses on the realization of rights for communities to live and be free from the threats of UXO. The project will achieve this through UNDP support to the National Regulatory Authority for UXO/Mine Action Sector in Lao PDR (NRA) and Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme (UXO Lao). The focus is on high priority land release, enhancing coordination, prioritization, and monitoring of UXO/mine action activities to drive the achievement of SDG 18, implementation of SPF III, and compliance with the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Background: Fifty years since the Paris Peace Accords (1973) formally ended the conflict in Lao PDR, UXO remains a major humanitarian and socioeconomic challenge. Every year, UXO causes deaths and injuries, limits access to potentially productive land, and adds substantial costs development efforts. The Government of Lao PDR has been active in the UXO clearance since shortly after the conflict ended. Lao PDR has advocated for the CCM and embraced the UXO issue as a key development matter by establishing country-specific SDG, SDG 18: “Lives Safe from UXO.” |
