NPA Mine Action Programme in Angola. Review 2004-2007

The Project

Norway has financed the de-mining and mine action programmes in Angola through Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) since 1994. The programme specified for the period of 2004-2007 has received NOK 51 mill. The immediate objective of the Mine Action program in this period is: "People living in areas affected by landmines can work, live and contribute without the fear of being affected by landmines".
Related to this objective the strategy document makes mention of three aims which in a log frame sense may be said to be outputs. Output 1: Communities in six provinces surveyed with regard to the socio-economic impact of landmines. Output 2: Communities in selected areas have received mine-risk education. Output 3: Clearing of land mines and Unexploded Ordnance's (UXO) in order to improve access and facilitate rural development and rehabilitation of social infrastructure.
A plan for 2008-2010 has been submitted to the Embassy for funding. The report is a combined review and an appraisal of the new proposal.

Interesting Findings
In terms of value added Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) clearly has a particular position among the NGOs involved in Mine Action (MA) in Angola. NPA bares a strong testimony to its edge in working closely with local communities and in being an innovative force in the Mine Action sector in Angola.
Regarding the programme for 2004-2007, there is a lack of data and analysis from NPA indicating to what extent the objectives have been reached - except for in the field of mine clearance statistics. However, for some of the specific outputs the judgement is the following:
Output 1: comprising NPA's work on the Angolan Landmine Impact Survey (ALIS) has been completed. The work in provinces to be covered by NPA has been concluded. The ALIS data base has been assembled and is in use.
Output 2: achievement in Mine Risk Education is difficult to determine for lack of a clear objective and quantifiable indicators. But, is likely to have been achieved in a formal sense.
Output 3: under which clearance for land mines and UXOs are the main services, has been achieved to some extent but a number of circumstances have reduced the degree to which expectations have been met. These circumstances were:
 The financial basis for the NPA MA programme declined in total by some NOK 20 million, for 2007. This was partly due to a generally declining interest from the main donors and the restructuring of operations including the planned closing of one base with decline in personnel capacity at the NPA of about 300 staff.
 NPA restructuring was completed by end of June 2007. However, in early 2008 some 40 positions were still vacant because of recruitment difficulties caused by private sector growth in Angola which caused a loss of skills from mine action. The lower staff numbers during 2007 still does however not explain the entire decline in clearance which was registered for that year. Also clearance per employee dropped.
 At the same time there was a virtual exodus of key managerial staff, resulting in a high rate of turnover in that category.
At the time of the mission in mid 2008 it however seemed clear that the bottom concerning morale and productivity had been passed. The organisation gave a definite impression of being "on its way up".
Regarding the proposal for 2008-2010 the team recommends that the programme as presented is not be accepted by the Embassy and that NPA (urgently) return to the planning phase for the Programme Proposal. The proposal is ambitious, and for NPA to reach the intended result (outcome) described in the proposal it must consider the possibility of strengthening its organisation; NPA will require both capacity which can secure efficient survey/clearance and professional management of the capacity building objectives of the Mine Action Programme