Getting to Completion: Funding Mine and Cluster Munition Clearance in Lebanon, Mauritania and Zimbabwe


A survey of clearance operators and national authorities provides insight into how close three countries are to removing all anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions.

This policy brief summarises data collected for Lebanon, Mauritania and Zimbabwe on budgets for clearing anti-personnel land mines and cluster munitions. This data has been collected for a pilot study funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which focused on the collection of detailed and disaggregated data directly from clearance operators via a questionnaire.

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Source: Peace Research Institute Oslo


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