Community Liaison (CL) teams are the eyes and ears of MAG. Their job is to go out and liaise with communities to find out what and where the problem is.
CL enables MAG to better target its resources to the areas of greatest need.
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A MAG Community Liaison Officer talks to children in Lebanon about the dangers littering their village in the aftermath of the 2006 conflict. |
Key components of CL include:
• Liaison with key stakeholders: this involves ongoing exchange of up to date and relevant information with all affected stakeholders – such as communities, development agencies and local authorities – throughout the whole clearance/Mine Risk Education (MRE) process pre-, during and post- MAG intervention. This liaison work:
- reduces delays in operations; through reduced bureaucracy, confusion and misunderstanding among stakeholders;
- resolves any friction between community members and clearance teams;
- ensures people are confident that cleared resources and land are safe.
• Strengthening of local information networks and agencies: this involves the development and strengthening of sustainable reporting structures, coordination networks and capacity building of local partners to better manage the threat of remnants of conflict.
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Nguyen Van Mua was tidying his garden in Quang Binh, Vietnam, and burning a pile of leaves and rubbish when suddenly there was an explosion. He wasn't aware that there was a cluster munition buried just beneath the surface. Here he's explaining to MAG's Community Liaison staff the circumstances of the accident. Later that day a MAG technical team checked the rest of Nguyen's garden to be sure that there were no more dangerous items buried there. |
• Data gathering and information management: this involves the gathering, compilation and analysis of relevant and timely data that includes baseline survey, data for prioritisation and implementation of tasks through to measurement of outcomes and impact of MAG’s work and production of case studies.
• Mine Risk Education (MRE): this may be the delivery of targeted MRE or training of MRE implementers based on the information needs of target groups, identified and tailored by the CL process. This moves beyond basic safety message delivery to broader strategies which mitigate high risk behaviour.
CL teams are recruited from the area of operations and therefore reflect the ethnic diversity of the region and can communicate in the local languages. Teams consist of both men and women, are highly mobile and trained in data collection and analysis, liaison techniques and targeted MRE delivery.
Note: see also the Mine Risk Education page